than that of the Minister who is identified with the party not supposed to favour landed privileges. Such a measure, if passed by a Tory Cabinet, would be more readily accepted as at least a political necessity, by the Irish gentry, the great majority of whom are Tories. They might conspire, as the present Lord Chief Justice of Ireland once threatened, in their name, that they would conspire, to render nugatory any such settlement carried by the Liberals. But a settlement carried by the Tories in the last session of the last unreformed Parliament would have very urgent claims on their consideration. They would, we believe, find it their interest and their policy to give it a generous and a thorough trial. The time is, indeed, peculiarly propitious of opportunity for legislation on the subject. Lord Clanricarde's Committee and the Bill, or rather code, which he submitted to the Upper House last session, has in a great measure prepared the Lords for bold and large legislation. There ought to be no difficulty if the Chief Secretary will introduce his measure sufficiently early next session in having it passed into law. But the great difficulty really is whether the Irish members of Parliament can raise themselves so far above mere party influences as to give any measures proposed by the present Government due consideration on their merits. And this, again, will depend on the question whether in the present state of Ireland any sound and serious public opinion can be formed on the subject during the recess. We regret to say we see no evidence that the subject is receiving as yet anything like that degree of attention which it deserves.

If

We have spoken of the question of a charter for the Catholic University as one, the solution of which is within reach. It is perfectly in accordance with the policy of the present Government to give a charter to the Catholic University. It is according to their precedents, for in 1852 they gave such a charter to the Catholic University of Canada. we are not misinformed, they have already intimated their disposition to do the same in the case of Ireland, provided the boon should be acceptable to those to whom it is offered. It would relieve them from the serious difficulty in which they are placed by the extraordinary chain of circumstances (for which Irish Catholics can hardly feel sufficiently grateful to Divine Providence) by which the Supplementary Charter to the Queen's University was nullified. So far as Trinity College is concerned, a separate charter for the Catholic University seems to be the one available means of preserving its endowments for the exclusive use of the Irish Protestants. And this is an object to their interest in which Lord Derby's Irish

supporters are by no means blind. But it is a price which. we believe all zealous Irish Catholics are willing to pay for the independence of their own University. The question, however, arises here, "Are the Irish Catholics really desirous of a charter for the Catholic University"? Considering the solemnity of the Pontifical Acts by which the University was founded; considering the enthusiasm and energy which were thrown into its first establishment; considering the almost intolerant indignation with which any lukewarmness in its regard, whether on the part of clerics or laymen, was visited; considering with what difficulties and at what sacrifices it has been maintained for the last fifteen years; it seems incredible that now when success is actually manifestly within reach, any faltering of will or ambiguity of language should be apparent on the part of public men undertaking to represent Catholic interests. Yet, it is said that intimations have been conveyed to the Government to the effect that a charter for the Catholic University is by no means desired, on the part of certain Catholics who conceive that they represent the class most interested in University education. They do not hesitate to declare their absolute hostility to any system of University education, so completely under sacerdotal influence as they suppose that of a Catholic University must inevitably be; and the Government is strongly urged to annex the Catholic University, as a necessary condition of its legal recognition, either to Trinity College or to the Queen's University. Such courses seem to us eminently disloyal and dishonourable. Having said what they have said, and done what they have done, for the establishment of a University system of their own, the Catholics of Ireland would be for ever disgraced if they should consent, on the very eve of success, to compromise its cause. But that cause is in serious danger now, from underhand manœuvres and secret communications, and it is full time, if, as we have no doubt whatsoever, the sentiments of the great majority of the hierarchy, clergy, and laity of Ireland are unchanged, that they should be made manifest to the Government, and to Parliament. The partisans of mixed education are numerous, zealous, and indefatigable. They are now becoming insolently intolerant of any system except their own, but they are in reality weak, as against the solid, conservative forces which, throughout the United Kingdom, are opposed to godless education; and the substantiation of the right of the Catholics of Ireland to a legalized denominational University would be a heavy blow and a great discouragement to all the interests of infidelity throughout the Empire. Herein Catholics

have a common cause with all the earnest members of all Christian sects, and especially with a very large segment of the Church of England. We repeat it, however, the present is a time in which, if they value their most sacred rights they cannot afford to remain any longer silent.

It is impossible to wonder at the dispirited condition of the Irish Catholics. Their politics are at present in a sad state of chaos. The inclinations of a large number of their most influential public men lead them to a desperate fidelity to the doubtful fortunes of the Liberal Party. The interests of the country, and Catholic interests in general, point to the policy of giving a fair trial to the present Government. Our own belief is, that the Irish Catholics are strong enough, if they chose to organize their strength, to be independent of either party, and to win their way by making each pay toll in its turn. A remarkable instance of what even one perfectly independent Member of Parliament can effect in this way, is furnished by Mr. M'Evoy's conduct in the question of the Repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act, last session. When that question was first mooted it was regarded as well nigh desperate, and it will be remembered how, on the debate at its introduction, to the surprise of the House of Commons, a group of Catholic Liberal Members rose, one after another, to denounce the proposition as ill-timed and preposterous. Mr. M'Evoy, however, with a degree of courage and perseverance eminently creditable to him, contested the question, though his colleagues deserted him on every occasion when it was brought before the House. Ultimately, with the consent of the Government, Mr. M'Evoy got a Select Committee, and that Select Committee received a body of evidence of the most important character that has for many years been brought before Parliament on any Catholic question.

In the conduct of the Committee, the policy of the parties composing it again changed; the Conservatives, to a man, opposed the repeal of the Act; the Liberals steadily supported Mr. M'Evoy. The ultimate result was that the report condemned the Act, and recommended its repeal; and upon this point, though close divisions took place on all the clauses of the report, the Committee was practically unanimous. The one proposition of the report upon which they were unanimous was that which recommended that some legal designation should be devised for Roman Catholic bishops. In the appendix to the report an indication of the meaning of the Committee is given, in the Act of the Canadian Legislature, which recognizes the bishops of that country with the affix to their titles of "in communion with the

See of Rome." Such a recognition of Roman Catholic titles would, it is obvious, be an effectual repeal of the Act; and that Parliament is willing to go so far is, we take it, plain from the debates which occurred in both Houses. Legislation to this effect should be promptly pressed. We have already expressed the opinion, and we repeat it with a complete conviction that the repeal of the Ecclesiastical Titles Act is the natural, if not the necessary, preliminary to a more wholesome state of relations than at present exists between the Catholic Church and the Government of the United Kingdom; and it is also obvious that its repeal may be more easily expected from the present Government than from a Government of which Lord Russell is the head. There is a substantial agreement, we are informed, between the leaders on both sides of the the House regarding the concessions to which Catholics are entitled in the administration of workhouses and prisons; yet this subject was hardly alluded to last session. Let us hope that not an hour of next session will be lost in its prosecution to a good issue, to whichever party the credit may redound.

Such, we think, are some of the results which might be achieved for Ireland, with a very ordinary degree of policy, next session, and which, if achieved, would make of it an Irish session indeed, though not quite in so wide a sense as Mr. Bright's. Any doubt that we have of the result arises from our doubt of the preliminary condition. The great mass of Irish Catholic members, and members representing Irish Catholic constituencies, seem wholly incapable of rising above, or even relaxing for a time, their present servile relation to the Liberal party. Yet we are probably approaching a period when it will be as impossible for a Catholic politician to retain the name of Liberal as it would have been for him at any time within the last forty years to avow himself a defender of the Protestant constitution, in Church and State. Two years ago we ventured to say that the great want of the time was a policy for Ireland on the part of British Statesmen, and on the part of Parliament a willingness to give effect to that policy. At present Statesmen abundantly see the necessity of having an Irish policy. Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone are equally alive to its importance, and Lord Russell has given testimony to the same purport. The willingness of Parliament to give effect to the measures of ministers will, however, in some degree depend on the attitude and conduct of the Irish members. At present we are afraid the general sense of Parliament is that they think far more of the smaller tracasseries of party, and the pursuit of little places and little titles, than of the great questions which are supposed to be convulsing VOL. IX.-NO. XVIII. [New Series.]

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their country. Nor are they, with a very few exceptions, equal, in point of Parliamentary ability, to the exigencies of their position. No one would seriously compare the present generation of Irish members with that which entered Parliament under O'Connell and Sheil, or that which served with Lucas and Gavan Duffy, Sergeant Shee and Mr. Moore. Yet opportunities will come and go, useless to a country which does not know how to take advantage of them. The time is coming when the responsibility will rest on the Irish Catholics of considering whether it is not absolutely necessary for them very considerably to recast their representation. It is not adequate, either in talent or morale, to the statesmanlike treatment of questions so grave as those involved in the present condition of Ireland. The principles of the Reform Bill, which will doubtless be extended to Ireland next session, will, we believe, immensely increase the political power of the Irish Catholics, and it is to be hoped, in their own true interest that they will employ it with wisdom and energy. The reason why Fenianism spreads so freely among the lower classes is because they have lost faith in Parliamentary politics; and the reason why they have lost faith in Parliamentary politics is because they have gradually lost faith in the honour and honesty of almost all Parliamentary politicans. Fenianism could not have lived alongside of the Repeal Association, or of the Tenant League. The politics of conspiracy in Ireland always begin at the point where the peasant loses faith in the honour of public men. Why should not a great effort be made by those who really have the power and are responsible for the politics of Ireland, to improve the quality of its representation? There are not wanting in that country men endowed by God with some of the most precious gifts and qualifications for the career of Parliament. If power given to the people is to be conscientiously exercised, it ought surely to be in placing such men where their talents could be made most useful for the service of their country, and the service of all good causes. So subtle and profound a thinker, one so gifted with a refined and scholarly eloquence, has not treated of the affairs of Ireland for many a year, as the gentleman whose latest pamphlet we have placed at the head of this article. In any other country but Ireland, and indeed, in Ireland, at any time except the present, it would be natural to expect that such a man should be designated to do honour to some constituency, by occupying in its name a seat in that Assembly where opinions so urged are rapidly transmuted into facts. In the West of Ireland, living on his patrimonial estate, there is an ostracised Irish politician, whose eloquence might, not unfitly, be compared with that of