The Sun.
London, England, 1868-06-22 00:00:00

THE GO VERNMENT PROPOSITION FOR
A ROMAN CA7IIOLIC UA'l VERSITY 11V
lI?ELA YD.

The following letter has been addressed to Lord
Mayo by the Catholic prelates who were invited by
the Government to consult on the granting of a
charter to the Catholic University :

64 To THE RIGHT HON. TIIE EARL OF MAYO, M.P.,
CHIEF SECRETARY FOR IRELAND.

"My Lozd,—lt is but due to ourselves to call
your attention to the explanations recently given
by yourself in answer to Sir John Gray's question,
and by another noble lord in the Upper House,
both referring to the broken-off, if ever to be re-
sumed, negotiations concerning a charter for a
Catholic University. These negotiations, the
public is now fully aware, were entered upon in
consequence of the declared intentions of
the present as well as the late Government
to remove in part the educational disabilities under
which the Catholics of Ireland labour; and they
were conducted so far as they went by your lord-
ship, aided by the Earl of Malmesbury, on the part
of the Government, and by us on the part of the
Catholic prelates of Ireland. Not only was public
attention excited, but much satisfaction was felt
when it became known that Government was pre-
pared to confer with the Catholic prelates of Ire-
land, through two of their number, upon the im-
portant subject in question. The negotiations went
on smoothly but very slowly through the first stages,
and then were suddenly stopped short, naturally
causing something like a shock to public expecta-
tion, proportioned to the suddenness of the abrupt
and unlooked-for termination of the business, sup-
posing it to be the termination. Then came the
Parliamentary explanations from the Earl of
Malmesbury and your lordship, to :which we now
desire to call your attention.

" If we may trust to the reports which have ap-
peared in the public journals, and there seems to be
no reason for doubting their correctness, the Earl
of 1\ lalmesbury's explanation was a misinterpreta-
tion of the facts involved—quite unintentional, we
are willing to believe, nevertheless real ; for, as re-
ported, he said the negotiations ended in nothing,
because the bishops rejected the plan proposed
by Government, whereas the fact was that they
ended, if they have ended, in nothing, because
the Government rejected the suggestions which
you had invited us to offer. And then, as re-
gards your lordship's explanation in answer to
Sir John Gray's question, though far be it
from us to impute anything like an inten-
tion to mystify or mislead, that explanation
seems to leave it doubtful upon whom should
rest the responsibility, whatever it be, of breaking
off the negotiations—upon you or upon us. We
desire to set the facts in their true light before the
public ; and to remove the doubt on the other.
" We do, then, assert that the negotiations were
not broken off by us, or because we had rejected
the plan proposed by the Government, and conse-
quently that we have not to answer for it if they
have ended in a ' most lame and impotent con-
clusion.' At our interview with your lordship and
the Earl of Mahnesbury you invited us to commit
our views to writing, in order that they might be
submitted to the consideration of the Government.
You did not give us to understand, neither did we
then or since give you to understand, that this
statement of ours was to be regarded as our last
word, in a negotiation but just opened, and
upon a subject which, from its very nature, as well
as from the divergence of views apparent at the out-
set, demanded a further interchange of ideas; a
fuller discussion, if the whole business was to end
in anything. Not a word of ours, spoken or writ-
ten, indicated that we had taken ground from which
nothing could induce us to recede. We were pre-
pared.toido what parties conducting a negotiation in
good faith must be prepared to do—listen to reason,
and, as far as possible, make concessions as well as
demands. Assuredly, there was nothing to make
you think that you had to do with persons who
would demand everything and concede nothing—
who would hold tenaciously to their own once ex-
pressed opinion, but would pay uo heed to anything
you might have to say on the other side—and
that therefore you might regard our statement of
the 31st of March as the final and unalterable ex-
pression of our views. It was not, my lord, in-
tended by us to be final ; nor was any such thing
conveyed by us directly or by implication. If it
was final, it was you, acting in the name of the
Government, who made it final. After waiting for
a considerable time, we will not insinuate for the
purpose of seeing how far the bare offer of a charter
for a Catholic University might be made to sub-
serve political exigencies, you, in the name of the
Government, as if to cut away all ground for any
further treating, rejected every one of the
suggestions which you had invited us to make,
and without more ado you had the correspondence
printed and submitted to Parliament. You it
was, then, my lord, not we, who brought the nego-
tiation to an abrupt termination, if terminated it
has been.

" That this business should have been terminated,
if so it be, in a manner as abrupt as it was unlooked
for, and without any benefit whatever resulting to
the Catholic public such as was anticipated at the
first starting of it, has naturally enough produced
a deep sense of disappointment. We leave it to
the public to pass its verdict upon the whole
transaction, offering little or no remark our-
selves beyond a statement of the facts. But, as
one of the negotiating parties, and maintaining as
we do that we did not break off the negotia-
tions, we conceive we have a right to ask you, as
the other party, and we do ask you, my lord, whether
you consider what has taken place between us as
final. Your reply will put beyond question upon
whom rests the responsibility of an abrupt as .well
as abortive termination of this whole business; and
it is but right that whatever responsibility may
attach to it in the eyes of the public should lie upon
the really responsible party. It is oar intention to
publish this letter.—We have the honour to be, my
lord, your lordship's obedient servants,
" t PATRICK LEAIIY, Archbishop, &c.
" t JOHN DERRY, Bishop, &c..
" Thurles, June 16, 1868."

The Salta Public of Lyons, in speaking of the
silk trade, says :—" Business last week assumed all
the development possible with stocks in such a state
of exhaustion ; all articles were in demand, and
the official quotations show a marked rise. The
consignments from Asia have participated in
the movement, and will probably be still more
inquired for in presence of the enormous
advance in the price of silks in Europe.
Nevertheless, the most important transactions of
the week consist in sales for delivery at very high
rates. The cause of the briskness lies in the opinion,
now general, that the crop will be inferior to that
of last year both as to quantity and quality. In
the factories an activity is observed which appears
wonderful when we consider the price of the raw
material. If any persons two years ago had said to
the trade, then in utter stagnation, ' You will
never again have a brisk market until the price of
silks has risen 50 per cent., the dealers would have
been seized with a lit of laughter ; and yet such is
the exact truth at present, as the rise just men-
tioned has been realised ; hands are short ; material
is bespoke before it reaches the warehouse ; and
the high prices, readily accepted, do not for a mo-
ment arrest the consumption. From Paris and
London orders arrive in swift succession, and even
America seems disposed to return to our market.
This situation is altogether unexpected ; yet a grain
of sand on fortune's wheel might suffice to change
the whole aspect of affairs. There are so many
causes of disquietude in Europe, so many rifled
cannons, so many loaded rifles, that people ask
themselves what will be become of the high prices
of silks and the consequent activity if a single shot
were fired at this moment in Germany, Italy, or
elsewhere. Let us not forget that Sadowa caused
a fall of 30fr."

THE ABYSSINIAN EXPEDITION.--A report, by
Captain Holland, of later date than that noticed a short
time ago, has been forwarded to the Secretary of State for
India by Sir Robert Napier. It contains a statement of
the condition the Land Transport Corps, and of the seve-
ral works carried out under the control of the Quarter-
termastor-Gcneral's Thypartment of the Alyssinian Field
Force on the 12th May.