The Sun.
London, England, 1859-09-08 00:00:00

DEPARTURE OF THE GREAT EASTERN.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.
At length, after having encountered every vicis-
situde to which a commercial speculation could be
exposed, and endured every danger most calculated
to test the strength and stability of the ship itself,
the Great Eastern for the first time cast off her
moorings yesterday morning, and in the course of a
few hours was safely towed to Purfieet. It was
originally intended that the departure should have
taken place on Tuesday last, and all announced
confidently, that the preparations for sea would be
complete by that date. As usual, however, the
thousand and one little odds and ends which
are never finished, because not found wanting till
the last moment, remained to bedone, and probably
of all the busy hours which have been expended on
the completion of this vessel none were ever more
actively employed than those of Tuesday and Tues-
day night. Almost all trades had their representa-
tives on board, and apparently every branch of
manufacture was diligently pursued at once ; decks
and saloons were lumbered up with bales of bed-
ding, piles of furniture, and masses of crockery ;
smiths were busy "closing rivets up" with a clamour
from which even the size of the ship was no protec-
tion ; plate from Elkington's was being stowed
away, men were busy hanging costly chandeliers
from Defries's, every one seemed in a hurry, and
struggled and stumbled amid a confused mixture of
shavings and forges, anvils, guns, anchors, cables,
barrels, and hawsers. Below the confusion was not
much less, though made up of different materials,
and at the first glance it seemed hard to believe
that the chaos of sofas, dinner furniture, mirrors,
chandeliers, and carpeting would ever be in their
proper places by the morning, and form the fittings
of rich and well-furnished saloons. Such, however,
was really the case. Mr. Parry, to whom the con-
tract for furnishing the fittings of the ship has been
intrusted, worked with the most indefatigable
energy, and during a few short hours immense
progress was made. The noise, however, was pretty
continuous, so that on the whole a lively night was
the result, and few had got sufficiently accus-
tomed to the tremendous din to require calling when
the day began to break, and the tramp, and, if pos-
sible, the increased stir in the ship, announced that
the 'hour of departure was drawing near. Mr.
Atkinson, the pilot, to whose well-known care and
skill this noble vessel was intrusted, came on board
the previous night and his assistants soon after
dawn yesterday. Just as a faint grey light began
to break upon the river, the preparatione for getting
under weigh were made. Several powerful tugs
were in attendance, the four principal ones being
names, curiously enough, the Victoria, Napoleon,
Alliance, and True Briton. Moving the Great
Eastern, however, was not an affair of casting out
a tow rope and going ahead. There was, of course,
the usual routine amount of shouting, and inexpli-
cable orders and counter-orders, and fussing about
of the tugs, before all was in readiness. Mooring
after mooring was then slipped off. Captain Har-
rison and the pilot then took their places on the
starboard paddle-box. Mr. Scott Russell remained
on the bridge to direct the action of the engines,
both of which (screw and paddle) were under steam.
Captain Comstock, one of the ablest American
navigators, who brought the General Admiral over
to this country, stood aft to transmit directions to
the men at the wheel, as Mr. Langley's new steer-
ing apparatus was not completely fitted. Mr.
Prouse, the chief officer, took charge of the fore
part of the ship, and to all the other officers were
allotted stations either to transmit directions or to
signal to the tugs. Precisely at a quarter-past
seven the last moorings were let go, but as at this
time the sweep of the tide had turned the great
ship's bows in, so as to point rather in shore of the
seamen's Hospital ship, it was necessary to turn
her slowly astern to get sufficient room to round
the very sharp. curve of the river below Greenwich.
The screw engines started first, working beautifully
without noise, heat, or even apparent vibration,
and when the paddle machinery came into play,
a few revolutions sufficed to get her head round
to the point required. Then was the order given
to go ahead slowly, and for the first time
the Great Eastern started into motion, and
with the slow majestic beat of her huge paddles
moved grandly down the river. The general public
had evidently put but little faith in the announce-
ment that she would leave the river yesterday, so
that until the preparations were made for actually
leaving there was little stir upon the river. Gra-
dually, however, as the steam-tugs began to move
about and get their tow ropes in, it seemed sud-
denly to break upon the amphibious population at
both sides of the stream that they were at last
about to lose a vessel whose presence has made
Deptford and the Isle of Dogs famous throughout
the world. Then ensued an extraordinary scene.
Thousands upon thousands of people were seen
rushing to the river side from all points. Boats of
every kind and size were launched crowded to the
water's edge, and the stream and itabanks seemed
suddenly instinct with life. There were not so
much cheers as continuous shouting—a genuine
outburst of enthusiasm and delight. 'Even the wan
and sickly inmates of the Seamen's Hospital ship
tarried out upon the deck or crowded the ports with
their worn faces to give one shout or wave a cap
to the vessel which swept so grandly by. The very
first turn at Greenwich showed Captain Harrison
and all the officers of the vessel that the great ship
was as thoroughly under command as a river
steamboat, and that the only difficulty to be over-
come, or rather to contend against, was her length
in turning the sharp curves of the river at Green-
wich, Blackwell, and Woolwich. The vessel's
draught was 21 feet 10 inches aft and 22 feet 3'
inches forward—about the very worst trim in
which she could have left her moorings, being
down by the head five inches instead of some five
feet down by the stern. 23 or 24 feet may appear
no great depth of water, but when it is recollected
that this was the minimum required at the turn-
ings, and over a length of 800 feet, which is
more than the breadth of the Thames at West-
minster, it will be seen at once that these angles
were at first regarded with a certain amount of
anxiety and distrust. A few moves of the vessel,
however, showed that she was perfectly in hand.
She steered as easily as a wager-boat, and her
engines were found capable of starting her into
motion or arresting her progress literally almost by
a single movement of the hand. At Greenwich, on
both sides of the river, an immense multitude had
collected, but it was at Blackwell that the first
really great ovation was made. The news of her
departure had spread far and fast, and from the
deck of the great ship the shores could be seen at
Blackwell Point literally darkened by people.
Every house was crowded, and the roofs covered
with spectators • the mast-house was occupied, the
pier swarmed, the tops and yards of the vessels in
the docks seemed alive. As the great ship ap-
proached the enthusiasm seemed to pass the bounds
which ordinarily mark sach displays with English-
men. The dense mass cheered, shouted, waved
.hats, shawls, handkerchiefs, with an abandon of
gratification that was heart-stirring. It was really
almost a national reception, and all seemed to have,
as Englishmen, a share in the finest, swiftest,
strongest, and handsomest ship which the world
has yet seen. There was but one drawback on the
enthusiasm and happiness of those who were on
board, which was caused by the absence of the
eminent man to whore the conception of-the ship
was due—Mr. Brunel. A severe illness prevented
his being present at the first triumph of the
grandest originated idea which has ever been
naval architecture.

Blackwall Point was, indeed, the turning point
in the fortunes of the Great Eastern. The river at
this place forms on acute angle, round which the
tide sweeps with strong but most unequal force.
The admirable manner in which Capt. Harrison and
the pilot Mr. Atkinson, managed the ship, the power
and .:reFularity with which the engines worked,
would, if left unobstructed, have soon got the vessel
roofur this place. But, of course, right in the centre
river, a barque, the Kingfisher, was moored,
while a little beyond her lay a schooner in such a
manner as effectually to block the " fair way" down
the stream. The tugs were signalled to get the
Great Easter/l's head round, and tried to do so, but
the strain
imit, toomoment two of the much, ' at the most critical
hawsersvessel parted, and for a few
minutes the noblewas, beyond a doubt, in a
periMus position, as the
sweep of the tide was
strong and in an instant drove her towards shore.
Nothing but the great power of her own engines
saved her here, though it was a delicate matter matr to
use- them properly. It was necessary instantlye to
count eract the influence of the tide and get her
head off shore ; but, at the same time, to do so in
such a manner as would not give way enough to
take her on shore on the opposite side of the river.
Fortunately this was effected, fresh hawsers were
passed to the tugs, the bark, the Cause of all the
. peril, shipped her anchor, and after an anxious
delay of some 10 or 15 minutes, the Great Eastern
worked slowly round and turned the point of danger.
This was a great relief to all on board, and to none
more so than to Messrs,. Campbell and. Jackson, the
managing directors, both of whom had been inces-
santly occupied the previous dayand night in look-
ing to all the arrangements for the first departure.
'The moment the point was safely passed carrier
pigeons were sent up from the vessel and the shore
sprea d the welcome news.
At W.oolwich there was of course a tremendous
eon conrsAl of spectators. Every spot which could,
and doubtless many which could not, ccmmand a
view of the ship, were thronged. The Dockyard,
the A mild, every place was covered. The Fisgard
had h er Men in the shrouds, who welcomed the
safe Es: ?rival of-the vessel with a
back
" three
times three," which was echoed from both

sides of the river by an almost countless multitude.
It is very probable that another such ship may
pass down the Thames, but it seems ndt possible
that the same amount of interest can be manifested
in any other vessel again, no matter what her size.
Once past Woolwich, all the difficulties were
over. The tugs continued their assistance, but the
vessel was so perfectly under control that while the
tide was against her their assistance might have
been easily dispensed with. But for the delay at
Blackwall Gravesend would have been reached by
11 o'clock. As it was, however, the tide turned and
set with the ship before that hour, when the vessel
was at the Lotig Reach off Purfieet. An immediate
halt was therefore necessary, as in turning a few
sharp corners with the tide the vessel's whole broad-
side would' become exposed to the full force of the
stream, and not all-the tugs in the river would pre-
vent her going ashore at once. It was therefore
determined to anchor off Purfleet till this (Thurs-
day) morning. A single one of Trotman's anchors
was let go at the bows, and the course of the ship,
which it was said no anchors could ever hold, was
at once checked, and the Great Eastern actually
began to swing round in the Thames as much
under command as a cutter. For the single in-
stant during which she swung and remained broad-
side to the stream she seemed literally to bridge
across the river. There was room enough for ber
to swing, but not a foot to spare. The vessel came
round to the full • force of the tide, and her chain
cable taughtened up out of the water for a moment
,like an iron bar, but the single anchor never
an inch from the spot where it was first
dropped. _ _

This day (Thursday) the Great Eastern will re-
sume her course, and arrive off the Nore soon after
12 o'clock. Our readers may beinterested to know
that there was not a single seaman on board the
Great Eastern during this river trip, none of the
crew having joined when she left, and the men on
board, with the exception of stokers and officers,
being all riggers from Mr. Westhorp's yard.

DESTRUCTIVE FIRE IN WATERLOO•
ROAD-THREE LIVES LOST.

ADDITIONAL PARTICULARS.

A fire, by which the lives of three persons were
sacrificed in a very awful manner, occurred at four
o'clock yesterday morning, in the Waterloo•road, a
few doors beyond the South-Western Railway Sta-
tion.

The premises were occupied by a man named
Burton, who carried on business as a dealer in second-
hand wardrobes. His family consisted of his wife,
her claw:hter by a former husband, and three sons,
respectively of the ages of 23, 17, and 11 years.
The house was an ordinary eight-roomed tene-
ment, two rooms upon a floor. The ground
floor was devoted to the purposes of the business,
and the upper rooms were used as a dwelling.
The attic windows are hidden from observation by
a wall recently run up in front of this and three
or four adjoining houses for the ostensible purpose
of giving increased architectural effect, but with
a result which prevents the possibility of pass-
ing from one house to the other, and produces
what may in truth be termed " a trap for the de-
struction of human life" in case of a fire occurring
in any one of the dwellings.
The outbreak was discovered at a few minutes
before 4 o'clock, by two constables of the A reserve,
attached to the Tower-street police-station. In
passing the shop they observed smoke issuing from
between the shutters, and on looking more closely
the interior of the shop was found to be in flames.
They instantly. sprang their rattles and endeavoured
to alarm the inmates of this and the adjoining
houses, at the same time rousing the fire brigade at
the station nearly opposite, and despatching mes-
sengers for the nearest fire escapes. In a few mo-
ments Mr. and Mrs. Burton and other members of
the family were seen at the second floor windows
imploring aid from those below. The fire was
gaining a rapid ascendancy, and smoke issued from
both the first and second floor windows before even
a ladder could be obtained. Presently one was
brought from the railway station by a porter, and
Police-constable Allshorn,l97L, gallantly ascended
to the first floor window of the burning house.
While there he heard the screams and cries of the
sufferers above, and called loudly to them to come
down. At this time the staircase was in flames,
and the unfortunate inmates, fearing to descend,
went up into the front attic, probably hoping to
escape over the parapet. The space between'the
front wall and attic window was not more than 12
inches—a mere gutter, in fact—while the height
of the division wall between the houses on either
side was at least seven feet. Into this confined
space all the family seem to have been crowded,
the flames gaining upon them every moment, and
threatening them with destruction. Mr. Burton
and his eldest son contrived by some means to get
over the division wall between their own dwelling
and an adjoining coffee-house. The second son
made his escape over the other division wall, in an
opposite direction; but Mrs. Burtonand her daugh-
ter, Miss Read, a fine young woman 23 years of
age, and the youngest boy, a lad of 11 years old,
remained in the gutter, and were there literally
" roasted to death.
The flames were subdued in little more than half
an hour after the outbreak, and before any of the
upper rooms, except the front attic, had been seri-
ously injured by the fire. The music which the
daughter had apparently been playing before she
retired to rest remained unscorched upon her piano
in the first floor sitting-room, and the book which
Mrs. Burton had evidently been reading when she
fell asleep lay upon her pillow in the second floor
front bedroom. The great ravages which the fire
made in the front attic had been evidently caused
by the door of that room being left open to the stair-
case while the others were closed.
On the firemen discovering the bodies it was found
that Mrs. Burton was partly dressed, having her
boots laced and stockings and garters on. This was
considered so remarkable that in the course of the
day Mr. Burton was asked if he could explain the
circumstance. He replied that he could not account
for it in any other way than as follows :—He said
that unfortunately during the evening he had an
altercation with his wife, after which he had left
home and gone to a neighbouring public-house; that
he returned about 12 o'clock and went to bed to his
wife, who was asleep at the time, and whom he sup-
posed might, in consequence of their previous dis-
agreement, have lain down without undressing her-
self. He said further that he was first alarmed by
his wife exclaiming that the house was on fire, upon
which he roused the different members of his family
and collected them in the front attic, where he sub-,
sequently assisted them to get out into the gutter—
that he and one of his sons succeeded in getting
over the parapet on to the next house in one direc-
tion, and that he expected the other members of the
family had escaped in the opposite direction. This
was all that could be gained from him, and he ex-
pressed himself totally unable to account for the
origin of the fire. It should be mentioned that Mr.
Burton and the two sons who were saved escaped
nearly in a state of nudity, having nothing more
than their shirts on.

In the course of the investigation set on foot by
Mr. Henderson, foreman of the Southwark division
of the Fire Brigade, yesterday morning, some words
recently written in pencil on one side of the shop
door, were discovered, which excited some curio-
sity. They are written in a small but bold hand,
and with an apparent erasure of one word read as
follows :—" Mind you get at one o'clock."
What this can mean is not very intelligible, but
the handwriting is believed to be known, and the
police have thought it desirable to preserve it.
With two fire-escapes stationed within short dis-
tances—one at the Orphan Asylum and one at
Surrey Chapel—it seems deplorable that so serious
a loss of life should have occurred. The fact, how-
ever, is accounted for by the extreme rapidity with
which the fire ran through the house, and which
prevented even the close proximity of a fire-brigade
station being of any essential service. The second
son of Mr. Burton was taken from the roof on to
which he had escaped by the conductor of the ma-
chine from the Orphan Asylum, and it is said that
at the time he was removed the cries of his mother
and sister were distinctly audible through the
flames, which unhappily prevented the possibility
of any attempt being made to rescue them.
The bodies of Mrs. Burton and Miss Read were
so completely wedged into the gutter where they
were found that the firemen, in extricating them,
were obliged to cut away part of the window
frames. The upper portion of ther remains were
entirely consumed, but the legs and lower extremi-
ties had suffered very little from the action of fire.
Mr. Burton's pecuniary loss is covered by an in-
surance in the Phcenix Fire-office for £5OO.

It is 'a lamenable and disgraceful fact that when
filo firemen applied to the parochial official who
has charge of the shells belonginr, to St. John's
Church for the loan of one in which to place the
body of the third sufferer, it was positively refused,
and the police were obliged to go to the parish
workhouse, a distance of a mile and a half, to ob-
tain a coffin. The excuse for this piece of barbarity
is that, as no church rates are permitted in Lam-
beth, there are no funds out of which to defray the
charges consequent upon depositing a body in the
church vaults.

eloping
CASE.—fir. Woods,
with Mrs. Bendino, the
THE LIVERPOOL ELOPEMENT 0
wovrteirTall, and with being a
the person charged with elolpii
Liverpool,
rpaorgle sum of money,
wife of a coffee-house keeper
magistrates. on
:iars on both
party to theplunder ofjewellery
was yesterday brought before the Live
remand. From statements made by the°att
sides, it appeared that since the apprehension
certain explanations had been made and arrangements szeirla. Ills_
tired into, which had satisfied Mr. Bendino
was therefore withdrawn, Woods set at liberty. the charge

THE' SUN, LONDON, TIMRSDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 8, 1859. •

that an opportunity has occurred in which I can
offer to these noble provinces' a mark of the affec-
tion. and of the esteem which I profess for them.
" The Austro-Jesuitical party declares the con-
trary. It is in the discretion of every one to choose
between it and

(Signed) " MASSIMO D'AZEGLIO."

(From the Morning Post.)

The representatives of the people of the Romagna,
we learn by yesterday's telegram, after solemnly
invoking the Almighty to witness the righteousness
of their intentions, have declared that the people of
the Romagna, strong in their right, will no longer
submit to the temporal government of the Pope.
With this declaration, which all in the slightest
degree acquainted with the feelings universal' in
Romagna might have foreseen, commences the.
greatest difficulty of the Italian question, one leading'
to more important complications than those involved
in a mere redistribution of territory or an ordinary
transfer of allegiance. Five centuries and a half ago
Dante complained that the Church of Rome, by the
confusion of temporal and spiritual rule, fell in She
mire and befouled both herself and her high
charge. The unnatural union of the sword with
the crozier, he affirmed, at once weakened tempo-
ral and degraded spiritual authority. The decree
of the Assembly of the _Romagna is but the latest
expression of the same truth. The subjects of the
Pope solemnly protest before God and man against
the reimposition of the yoke which they have cast
off. The question whether their protest will be
favourably received by the great European Powers
is, in other words, the question whether the most
sacred interests of right and justice and humanity
shall once more, as in 1849, be trampled under foot,
that a clerical caste may be maintained in the pos-
session of extorted wealth and the exercise of a de-
tested tyranny.
By what means, it will at once be asked, can the
Pope hope to reduce to obedience his revolted pro-
vinces ? And the answer to this question has been
furnished, in great part, by the eloquent and lumi-
nous discourse of the Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio,
of which we published the translation yesterday.
Rome and Austria both calculate on the troubles
which they hope to excite in the Roman provinces.
Austria has already thrown open the criminal pri-
sons of Mantua, and let loose the very scum of the
earth, in the hope that by their, vices and crimes
they may assist in fomenting the much-wished dis-
orders. Not daring as yet publicly to interveneby
armed force, Austria has sent her soldiers disguised
to Ancona, where they are at once received amongst
the Papal troops as regular recruits. These acts,
we rejoice to say, have been hitherto baffled by the
prudence and patriotism of the Italian people.
But, even should they succeed, it becomes a ques-
tion whether Europe shall any longer tolerate the
systematic prolongation of political and moral
anarchy which their success would inevitably
cause.

The Marquis Massimo d'Azeglio has pictured to
us the States of Central Italy as they have long
been represented by Austria and her partisans,
and as they now appear when left wholly to them-
selves. According to the Austrian accounts, the
people of those countries were fondly attached to the
paternal Governments beneath whose sway they
lived, and only the intrigues of a few factious men
—of a few restless agitators—kept the country in a
chronic ferment. Had this been true, one ought to
have seen, as soon as Austria was compelled to with-
draw her soldiers, these men of intrigue, of faction,
and of bloodshed, assailing their various Sovereigns
or the delegates administering in their stead ; but
one ought also to have witnessed, if not the univer-
sal rising of the populations in defence of Princes
so dear to ther, at least an expression of deep and
heartfelt grief at the cessation of their benignant
rule. " Well," says the Marquis d'Azeglio, " what
has really happened is widely different. We have
neither seen factious men assailing their Princes,
nor faithful subjects defending them. We have
seen the Princes stepping into their carriages and
driving off, and their subjects drawn up on both
sides of the streets to see them take their departure,
without one indication either of favour or of hos-
tility, with the aspect of persons contemplating an
event the most natural in the world, and which the
whole world had already anticipated."
In thus acting, these rulers of Central Italy, the
Princes of Tuscany, Modena, and Parma, and the
Legates of the Pope, have but acted on their own
approved and notorious system. The Marquis
Massimo d'Azeglio, one of the most distinguished of
living Italian statesmen, for years the Prime Minis-
ter of his own country, and a truly upright, con-
scientious, and honourable man, publicly addresses
Europe to the following effect :—He says it is right
that the truth should be made completely known,
that what regularly occurs in Italy should be pro-
claimed and understood out of Italy. Not once,
not twice, not in one crisis alone, not in one State
only, but as often as the Austrian proconsuls rul-
ing in Italy have been overthrown by a national
movement, it has been their regular and prescribed
tactics at once to abandon their States, not to con-
fide to any one the authority, but rather to increase
pin every possible way the confusion, in order that
by an easy transition their subjects might return
I through anarchy to despotism. Such was the policy
of the Pope in 1849. When the Romans sent a
deputation to him at Gaeta, when they wished to
preserve their allegiance, he refused to accept it.
The same thing was true of Tuscany, of Modena,
and of Parma. The Marquis d'Azeglio con-
trasts the treatment pursued by the Italian
people to the agents and adherents of their
deispotic rulers, no less than to the rulers themselves,
with the atrocious barbarities practised by the
Papal soldiers in Perugia. The functionaries and
adherents of the fallen Governments have not had
so much as a hair of their head touched ; they have
not been deprived of so much as a 'single farthing
of their property. Nay, even in those provinces
where the worst abuses of the worst of governments
had stimulat'd and kept alive personal hatred and
party rancour and revenge, the poorest, the rudest,
the most ignorant have, as it were, awakened to a
new life of patriotism and of principle, exhibited a
self-sacrifice and a self-control that would be almost
incredible were it not manifest to the whole world,
and have given the lie to the slanders of those who
had so often described them as a .mere horde of
brigands and assassins. The Marquis Massimo
d'Azeglio declares that he owes it to his country
and to himself to, come forward and declare, on his
honour, to all Europe that for many a long year
Romagna has never been as tranquil as it is at the
present moment, and that the same thing may be
affirmed respecting the rest of Central Italy. And
the statement of such a man will carry with it in
every society in Europe the weight due to un-
blemished character, enlightened judgment, and
exalted patriotism.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE TIMES;

THE QUEEN'S COLLEGES IN IRELAND.

Sir,—The opponents of the Queen's Colleges in
Ireland have lately become very urgent in their
complaints against these institutions, and seem de-
termined, if possible, to overthrow the system of
mixed education which has been successfully inau-
gurated in that country. During the past Few
months their attacks have been frequent, and it
has been repeatedly stated that a Parliamentary
inquiry into the condition and possible utility
of the colleges is likely to be instituted. As
might have been expected, the arguments which
have been used against the colleges are most fal-
lacious—some of them founded on misapprehen-
sion, others upon positive misstatements, and all
of them appealing to very general ignorance of
their history and principles of incorporation. It is
now full.time that some notice should be taken of
these attacks, and that an effort should be made to
correct the wrong impression which they are cal-
culated to have upon the public mind.
It is remarkable that, although the Queen's Col-
leges have been founded within the last 15 years,
the circumstances connected with their establish-
ment are already to a great extent forgotten. Many
even of the friends of the colleges do not remember
that the Act of Parliament under which they were
founded was introduced and carried by the Govern-
ment of Sir Robert Peel, and not a few of their
opponents at the present day denounce them as a
" Whig job." Before, therefore, inquiring what
are the progress and present condition of the col-
leges, it may be well to review their history, and
recall some of the circumstances connected with their
establishment.
On the 7th of December, 1837, a select committee
of the House of Commons was nominated to inquire
into " schools of public foundation in Ireland.' The
report of this committee, presented on the 9th of
August, 1838, is one of the most complete and valu-
able documents that has ever been presented to
Parliament. The committee was appointed on the
motion of Mr. Wyse, and consisted of gentlemen of
different religious and political creeds. As might
have been expected, their report does not bear the
stamp of any party, but is singularly free from
sectarian bias. Among other things, the committee
recommended that a bill should be introduced into
Parliament " for the establishment and maintenance
of academical, collegiate, and professional educa-
tion in Ireland."

The following extracts from the report embody
the views of the committee as to the principles on
which the new colleges should be founded :
" Your committee are of opinion that the altera-
tions and additions they have suggested would
materially tend to accomplish the important object
for which they were appointed--viz., the extension
awl improvement of academical education in Ire-
land. At the same time, they think that it has not
yet been carried out to the full extent which is
required, and of which, with little additional effort,
it is susceptible.

" The County Academy meets the more ordinary
wants of the middle classes, and offers a good pre•
paratory course for the higher branches, especially
professional, of education; but from many of the
witnesses examined your committee are convinced
that the want of a still higher department inter-
mediate between the academy and the university,
and to which might with propriety be given the
name of college, is sensibly felt, and particularly
by the very classes to which reference has just been
made. The Belfast Academical Institution ap-
proximates to the desired organisation, and, from
the great good it has already in many particulars
effected, little doubt has been entertained of the
importance of affording other districts the advan-
tage of similar institutions. It has, consequently,
formed one of the branches of inquiry to which
your committee has attended. They have examined
by what means such institutions may be improved,
adapted, and extended. _

"Guided by the opinion of many of the most ex-
perienced witnesses of the necessity of such insti-
tutions, and the conviction that Proprietary Col.
leges will not supply the want, your committee
think that there gradually should be established
and maintained, at the public expense, one college
at least of the description just referred to in each
of the four provinces of Ireland, under the name of
Provincial Colleges,' and that it should be so esta-
blished and maintained at no great charge either
to the State or to the province in which it was placed.
" The object of these colleges should be to pro-
vide a high degree of education, preparing either
for the University, or, if the University were not
in view, for different public and private profes-
sional and unprofessional careers, thus obviating
the necessity of recurring at great expense and in-
convenience to other countries for a class of instruc-
tion which it would be desirable Irishmen should
have an opportunity of procuring at home.
" Though it might not be advisable that the col-
leges, individually, should be authorised to confer
degrees, it might still be so that a Board, formed of
members from each of the four, from the Col-
leges of Physicians and Surgeons, and from the
University of Dublin, and other learned bodies
(as might be deemed advisable), should sit in the
capital, and, after due examination and certificates
being produced of having gone through, in a satis-
factory manner, the several prescribed courses,
should be empowered to admit to degrees such can-
didates as presented themselves from the Provincial
Colleges, excepting, however, degrees in divinity.
" Your committee are not prepared to give an
opinion how far such degrees should confer all the
privileges incidental to those given by existing
universities.
" It might be advisable to give a common charter
to the four colleges, under one common name.
"All situations in the colleges should be open to
all religious denominations. No tests should be
required." _

'.these recommendations were not overlooked in

Ireland. Public meetings were, shortly after the
publication of the report, held in Cork and Limerick,
with the object of carrying out the suggestions of
'the committee for the establishment and organi-

zation of Provincial Colleges in Ireland. At the

former meeting an addre's's to her Majesty was
adopted, of which the following is an extract
In England four universities and numerous
colleges flourish under the sanction of Royal char•
ters ; Scotland, with two millions of inhabitants,
has four universities, and the intellectual character
of her people, the order and industry of her popu-
lation, are noble proofs of the wide-spreading and

beneficial influence of these institutions. Ire-land

numbering eight millions of yogi. Majesty's sub-
jects, has but one university, and it is obvious that
at a period when a demand has arisen for an educa-
tion proportioned to the rapid progress of know-
ledge, a single institution, even under the most
favourable circumstances, unless aided by provin-
cial establishments, cannot afford sufficient oppor-
tunities of instruction to the middle classes of an
entire nation.

" In humbly soliciting your Majesty's most gra
cious sanction to the establishment of a Provincia.

College in Munster, We adopt the suggestions and
general plan recommended in the report presented
during the last session by a committee of the House
of Commons—we are influenced by no adverse feel-
ing to any existing institution, we only seek for
the extension of the privileges of education to
every class and denomination of your Majesty's
subjects—we do not wish or intend to interrupt
private,enterprise ; it is rather to be expected that
Provincial Colleges, by facilitating the acquisition
of knowledge, will increase.the demand for educa-
tion, and give a new impulse to the lower schools,
and a more useful direction, to their studies. And,
may it please your Majesty, we look forward to a
still higher good, a still nobler result from this un-
dertakimg, excluding as it does, in the first princi-
ples on which it is founded, all ptlitical or secta-
rian considerations, and uniting men of all parties
and opinions in a great and national object, we ear-
nestly and confidently hope that it will be the
Means of softening down those irritating asperities
which create so much misery, and so effectually re-
tard the progress of improvement in Ireland."
Nor was the opinion of the Limerick meeting less
explicitly in favour of the suggestions of the Com-
mittee of the House of Commons. In the report of
Mr. Thomas Wyse, M.P., to the Cork Provincial
College Committee (printed by order of the House
of Commons, July 19, 1843), the following testi-
mony is borne to the character of these meetings :
" It is, of course, unnecessary to recall to your
recollection, or to that of the Cork or Limerick
committees, the favour with which the project was
received on its first appearance in Ireland. To
their joint exertions this spirit was principally
owing. Never before, I believe, had 'there been
displayed in Munster, on a subject so removed from
the ordinary excitements of politics, so much en-
thusiasm or, where division was so possible, such
general co-operation of all classes, creeds, and
parties. The two great meetings held at Cork and
Limerick were unexampled.
" The requisitifm lists embraced the elite of the
province. Petitions to the Legislature, a memorial
to the Lord Lieutenant, and an address to the
„Queen, praying for the earliest adoption of the mea-*
sure, were at once agreed on, and every other evi-
dence which could be desired or expected of the
anxiety of the province was exhibited.
The memorial was immediately presented by
the deputation appointed for the purpose to the
Lord Lieutenant (Lord Noimanby), who gave them
in answer assurances of his approbation and sup-
port. Not long after you transmitted the petitions
and address, signed by all that was respectable in
each comity of the province, for presentation to
,
London." •

Sir Robert Peel having in July, 1844, announced
that it was the intention of the Government in the