4.8

COLLEGE EXEMPTED FROM HEARTII-TAS.

after all lands, tenements, and hereditaments i that kind, which by the Act, intituled An Act for the better execution of his Majesty's gracious declaration for the settlement of his kingdom of Ireland, and satisfaction of the various interests of adventurers, soldiers, and others, his subjects,' those acres appointed for archbishops and bishops, and for the Provost of Trinity College, near Dublin, and after the five hundred pounds a year, by a former vote of this house desired to be granted to the Most Reverend Father in God, John, now Lord Archbishop of Armagh, Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland, shall be set out to them accordingly, to have and to hold to the said Lady Terrill, her heirs and assigns for ever, under such rents and services as were formerly paid or rendered thereout to the church, and submitting thereout to be reserved to his Majesty out of the premises, unto the judgment of the lord lieutenant or other chief governor for the time being with the advice of the council."

The next notice taken of Trinity College in the journals of the parliament occurs in an order of the house, by which it is exempted from the hearth tax: that impost had been abolished in England after the revolution, as vexatious and inquisitorial, but it continued in Ireland to the year 1820.

"30TH DIE AUGUSTI, 1662.

"Ordered, upon question, that Trinity College, near Dublin, be exempted from paying any chimney or hearth tax, and that a clause to that effect be inserted in the bill for raising such monies."

About the year 1660, Arthur, Earl of Donegal, founded in the college a Lecture in Mathematics, and endowed it with a salary of £10 per annum, which, allowing for the alteration in the value of money at this time, would be about equivalent to £100 a year. The earl presented to the office during his life, but then bequeathed that right to the college, and in the year 1675, we find the first notice of the provost and board having exercised that privilege, and at the same time

NG THE CIVIL WAR IN IRELAND.

49

to have united this foundation to the public Professorship of Mathematies, which in the year 1652 the Parliament Commissioners of the Commonwealth founded in this University, and which was held by Dr. Miles Sumner, from the above date until his decease in 1675.

CHAPTER II.

SECTION I.

THE University being again restored to that tranquillity so congenial with its legitimate objects, continued to pursue its proper duties, and grow calmly upon the public favour until the period of the Revolution. It was then once more unhappily forced into collision with the political world. That event, which in England renovated a kingdom without the sacrifice of a citizen, and changed a dynasty by acclamation, was not as immediately auspicious to the fortunes of Ireland. It plunged that nation into the calamities of civil war, maintained by parties equally fierce, and perhaps mutually vindictive; it retarded the regular course of improvement by the revival of ancient feuds, or the creation of such as have outlived the causes that produced them; and it gave to the fierce and vulgar love of party, an alarming ascendant over the exercise of reason and the peaceful spirit of religion, which has ever since tended to keep the Irish people divided and unhappy, and amongst these lamentable consequences, the total ruin of this peaceful seat of learning had well nigh been completed, as we shall presently make manifest.

It appears from an entry in the book marked D., in the college registry, that on February the 16th, 1788-9, it was agreed on by the Vice-Provost and Senior Fellows, That £200 of the college money

E

50

THE COLLEGE PLUNDERED. -TİŞ

should be sent into England for the support of those Fellows that should be forced to fly thither."

At the same time the danger of staying in the college seemed so great that it was judged reasonable for all those that thought fit, to withdraw themselves from the college for their better security; and that they should have liberty to adopt that course.

"About the 19th" of the same month, as we find in the above book, "all the horse, foot, and dragoons in Dublin garrison were drawn out and posted at several places in the town, from whence they sent parties, who searched the Protestants' houses for arms, whilst others were employed in breaking into stables and taking away all the horses. Two companies of foot, commanded by Captain Talbot, of the royal regiment of foot-guards, marched into the college, searched it thoroughly, and took away those few fusils, swords, and pistols that they found. At the same time a party of dragoons broke open the college stables, and took away all the horses found therein; the foot soldiers continued in the college all night, and next day they were drawn off.

"On the same day it was agreed on by the ViceProvost and Senior Fellows, that the Fellows and Scholars should receive out of the college trunk, (the two hundred pounds not having been sent into England as was designed,) the salaries for their respective fellowships, offices, and scholarships, which will be due at the end of this current quarter, together with their allowances for commons for the said quarter."

It further appears from the same book, that "on the 1st of March following, Dr. Browne, Mr. Downes, Mr. Barton, Mr. Ash, and Mr. Smith embarked for England. They were soon after followed by Mr. Scroggs, Mr. Reader, Mr. Lloyd, Mr. Sayers and Mr. Hassett, or Blennerhasset; Mr. Patrickson died in a few weeks after, and (of the Fellows) only Dr. Acton, Mr. Thewles, Mr. Hall, and Mr. Allen, remained in the college.'

99

"On March 12th, King James II. landed in Ire

KING JAMES II. HOSTILE TO THE COLLEGE. 51

land, and upon the 24th of the same month, being Palm Sunday, he came to Dublin; when the college, with their vice-chancellor, waited upon him, and Mr. Thewles made a speech, which he seemed to receive kindly, and promised them his favour and protection." The entries from which the above extracts have been taken, were made at the time, by the proper officers of the college. Yet we find that the royal imbecile, who thus promised solemnly to protect this peaceful institution, did, on the 6th of September following, seize this very college, changing it into a military garrison. On the 16th, he turned out the scholars, and sent six fellows and masters as prisoners to the main guard. On October the 21st, he seized the chapel and library. Yet, notwithstanding these acts of tyranny, Dr. Acton, the vice-provost, persevered in preserving the remnant of its privileges, and elected officers on the 20th of November, 1689; but he, unhappily, did not long survive this dangerous act of duty; he died about the close of the following month, his death having been hastened by affliction.

In the month of April, 1689, King James assembled a parliament in Dublin, to which the University sent two representatives, namely, Sir John Mead and Mr. Coghlan, both celebrated lawyers. It was with some difficulty that the college prevailed upon these gentlemen to undertake the honourable but dangerous service, as they were not friendly to the measure pursued by the bad advisers of James, and they could not expect, by opposing them, to do any thing else in reality than proscribe themselves. After a short and ineffectual struggle with the prevailing party, they absented themselves, to escape the vengeance of those whom they vainly resisted, and the odium of actions over which they had no control.

Amongst the most indiscreet of those counsellors, to whose advice James was indebted for losing the last sympathies of the people, was the Lord Tyrconnell, chief governor of Ireland; a minister who, incapable of any great design for restoring the fortunes of his royal master, possessed a great share of that officious

52

UNJUST TREATMENT OF COLLEGE.

zeal, which is a bad substitute for ability and prudence. To a mind like his, it would have been a matter of satisfaction to effect the ruin of the University; but as James had pledged himself, immediately after landing in Dublin, not only to protect the members of the college, but to increase rather than diminish the number of their privileges, it was necessary to resort to some contrivance which might exasperate the king to a breach of his engagement, or by lowering its character, bring down upon the institution the heavier evil of the censure of society. He soon conceived a project worthy of his capacity and intentions. There was among the number of his dependents one whose name was Doyle, by nature and education fitted to be the agent in such an enterprise. He was a person very illiterate, and still more immoral, on which account Tyrconnell selected him for collegiate honours; and persuaded the king to present a man notoriously unqualified, to the office of senior fellow. In a crisis so alarming, the provost and board behaved with prudence and firmness. They saw, on one side, the abasement of the character of the college, if such an associate should be admitted, and on the other the vengeance of an offended authority, which might effect its ruin, in case of his rejection. But Doyle's own mismanagement put it in their power to take a middle course, of which they instantly availed themselves. In obtaining a dispensation, he had, through ignorance, neglected to procure an exemption from the oath of fellow, in which that of supremacy was of course included. The provost, accordingly, tendered the oath, which Doyle, as was foreseen, afraid of incurring the displeasure of his party, refused; and was immediately denied admission. Finding remonstrances and threats in vain, he preferred a complaint to his patron, Tyrconnell, and his case became a subject of legal inquiry. The excess to which party spirit was, at that time, carried, allowed nothing to be sacred from its influence; the highest offices of the law were degraded to the service of faction; it was not therefore a matter of surprise, that, when Doyle's case