The Sun.
London, England, 1845-07-24 00:00:00

to, and the report was ordered to be received to-mor.
row (this day).

examinations for degrees, as there are in the University
of London. Now the University of London costs the
public 4,500/ a yoar ; and a new separate Irish univer-
sity would not cost the public leas.

The whole of this additional expense would be saved
by opening the endowments of Trinity College and the
professorships of the University of Dublin, as the degrees
of the University are open, to Catholics as well as Pro-
testants, and snaking the new colleges colleges of the
University of Dublin. The fellows of Trinity College
and professors of the University would then serve for
examiners, and Catholics as well as Protestants,
being fellows and professors, the Catholic popu-
lation of Ireland would feel no distrust of a
Dublin board of examiners so constituted. The saving
of expense would be the least advantage of such an ar-
rangement. The existence of two distinct Universities,
one accounted the Protestant and the other the Catholic
University, would go far to counteract the healing effects
of these new mixed colleges ; and while Trinity College
and the University of Dublin stand in proud isolation,

there will be danger of a mark of inferiority attaching to
the new colleges, and of what is intended for a boon to
the Catholics of Ireland being but a new sign of their
degradation. After all, what a farce it is to pretend
that the exclusion of Roman Catholics from
the endowment of Trinity College is necessary
to its assumed object of the education of Protestant
clergymen ? Assuming this to be the object of the
College, but assuming it merely for the sake of argu-
ment, why is the exclusion of Catholics from participa-
tion in endowments necessary, if their exclusion from
participation in education is not necessary ? A Pro-

testant clergy can be educated in communion with
holders of other creeds, and the restriction of endow-

ments to Protestants is nothing more nor less than a

pretence.

The House of Lords is passing the Irish Colleges Bill
at a railroad pace, which must wofully disappoint Sir
ROBERT INnms, if he built his hopes upon " another

place," and which proves, if proof were needed, the
eagerness of that House to do the bidding of Sir ROBERT
PEEL. If the Bill had come from a Whig Government
how would the House have resounded with imputations
of " Godlessness," and how nearly would this excellent

Bill have been thrown out, which is now passing withou
a division !

The debate of Monday night in the House of Lords,
on the petition presented by the Duke of RICHMOND
from veteran officers who had served in the Peninsular
campaigns, praying their Lordships to interpose in their
behalf, by supporting an address to the Sovereign,
praying that the petitioners might receive from her
MAJESTY some honorary distinction for the services
rendered by them in the Peninsular campaigns, is
well worthy of notice. The Noble Duke certainly
discharged the duty entrusted to him by these
gallant petitioners with much modesty and pro-
priety—observing, happily and truly, that it was un-
necessary for him to enter into any details of those ser-
vices, because their Lordships had on repeated occasions
voted their thanks to the petitioners on account of them.
It was equally unnecessary for him, he said, to dwell on
the vast importance of the results of the Peninsular cam-
paigns—so glorious to the British arms—in the general
pacification of Europe. All that the petitioners asked
for was but a strict act of justice ; and without im-
puting blame to any one, his Grace added,
without for one moment calling in question
the propriety of those general and remark-
able distributions of medals and distinctions which
had been made by the Sovereign on account of,
the battle of Waterloo, and of the services of the army
in the countries beyond the north-western frontiers of
India, and in China, he did think that the brilliant ser-
vices rendered by the petitioners throughout the pro-
tracted campaigns in Spain ought to be placed on the
same fuoting in respect of such testimonials or distinc-

We cannot see how any stronger or more reasonable
case could have been laid for the tardy performance of
what the gallant Duke justly termed a "strict act of
justice." In the whole range of modern European his-
tory, there can be found no parallel to the sustained gal-
lantry, endurance, and success which distinguished the
British army in the six or seven Peninsular campaigns
commeneLd in Portugal and concluded in France—a
career of triumphs almost without a cheek—a manifes-
tation of improved organisation in the Meld, of developed
and augmented resources at home, of general discipline,
moderation and good order in quarters, and in action, that
we believe to be without example. If medals and distinctions
have been granted to officers and men engaged in single
actions, however memorable in themselves or momentous
in their consequences, it is to be inferred that those who
have been actively engaged in the leading operations of
several consecutive campaigns, distinguished by their
multiplied engagements and sieges, have, to say the least,
a commensurate claim on the consideration of the Crown
Why the testimonials of that consideration should have
been so long withheld, we protest that we are still un-
able to understand, notwithstanding the speech in which
the Duke of WELLINGTON replied to that of the Duke of
RICHMOND. The Noble and Gallant Duke objected that
it was not " regular," nor " according to the practice of
to interfere in a question of this de.
st
chrei their Lordships,"n.
Bu
t how can it be said that, in the nature of
things, applications of this kind can be so frequent as to
have admitted the establishment of any rule of practice
in dealing with them ? And even, if they had been
more frequent, how can it be denied that every such case
ought to be determined upon its own merits ? What
form of proceeding could be applied, a priori, to
a state of things, such as that which arose out of the
prodigious variety and extent of the exertions of our
armies in the Peninsula in defeating the mighty combi-
nations of NaeoLeoN, conducted by the ablest of his
Generals and the flower of the French armies. Those
campaigns formed, or perfected, the military reputation
of the most distinguished Generals who, within the last
five-and-thirty years, have exalted the renown of our
arms under the personal auspices of WELLINGTON him-
self. We are left under no difficulty about the prin-
ciples on which the Noble Field-Marshal declined, so
far as his voice or vote could be concerned, to comply

Sir R. PEEL then laid on the table certain correspond-
ence respecting the slave trade, which, he said, on a
former occasion, he did not think it his duty to produce.
The adjourned debate on New Zealand was then re-
sumed by Captain Rous, who said he would not enter
into the merits or demerits of the New Zealand Com-
pany, but he would deprive them of their charter, and
give them a fair remuneration for what they had done.
The House was afterwards addressed by Mr. WARD,
Mr. a PALMER, Sir C. NAPIER, Mr. HAWES, Sir
R. PEEL, and Lord J. RUSSELL, but ultimately the
motion was negatived by a majority of 66, and the
House adjourned at a Quarter past One o'clock.

One of the strongest objections made to the Irish
Colleges Bill, by those friendly to its great principle
of united education, has been the absence of provision
for an University to confer degrees on the students of
the colleges. But there is at least this advantage in
leaving the question of the university unsettled, that the
door is not shut against an ultimate connexion of the
new Irish colleges with the existing University of
Dublin, and at the end of three years it may be easier
to effect this arrangement than it is now. We are glad
to infer, from some words attributed to Lord SrANLEY
in the Committee on the Bill on Tuesday, that the
Government are not pledged against an affiliation of the
University of Dublin. Lord STANLEY is reported to
hove said—" Perhaps the most satisfactory course, on
some accounts, would be to affiliate the new colleges with
Trinity College, Dublin ; but their Lordships would be
aware that there were difficulties in the way of such an
arrangement. Then came the question whether the new
colleges ought not to be associated as a separate Univer-
sity, the general meeting to be held either at a distinct
place, or alternately at one of the colleges. It would
obviously be highly desirable, upon this and other points,
that the opinions and wishes of the governing bodies,
and for this and other reasons delay seemed not inex-
pedient."
The Government then have not made up their minds,
and it might be much worse. If the Irish Colleges Bill
had contained a provision for an University, we have no
doubt that it would have been a new university. On
every ground it ought to be the present University of
Dublin, of which, properly, Trinity College Is only ,
college, as Trinity College, at Cambridge, is a college
of the University of Cambridge ; or Trinity College
at Oxford, a college of the University of Oxford ;
though being, contrary to the original intention, ae
only college, it has engrossed the government, and mo-
nopolised the privileges of the University of Dublin.
Does JOHN BULL, who has already been called on to
pay 100,0001. down, and 21,0004 a year for the three
new colleges, know that he has not yet got the whole Bill,
if there is hereafter to be a new university ? There
must be a staff of examiners, who must be paid
salaries, and who, though they will only be called upon
to examine twice or, at most, four times a year, while
the professors of the colleges will have'to lecture during
the greater part of the year, will not receive salaries
less than those of the professors in proportion to their
lesser amount of work ; for it will be necessary to have
examiners of even higher calibre than the professors of
the colleges, and a higher scale of salary will be neces-
sary in order to get a good man. Then, too, there
must be prizes and exhibitions in connexion with the