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

LITERATURE.

HISTORY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF
DUBLIN. By W. B. Sarsfield Taylor, A.M.,

One Vol., Bro.

A vast deal of writing, good, indifferent, and bad,
has been published during some centuries, about the
soil, climate, and physical productions of Ireland ;
on the customs, habits, and manners of its inhabitants
—their religious and political differences—the state
of their trade, manufactures, and commerce, in
various historical and statistical forms—but we are
not aware of any work to convey a clear and full
account of the state of intellectual cultivation in that
country, previous to the volume now under consider-
ation. Now, therefore, for the first time, has been
produced before the British people a description of
that national establishment, wherein the intellectual
it
s
various of the Irish people can be developed in
various degrees, called into active existence, and
prepared for the various learned professions or to
adorn the noble and senatorial ranks of life.
To educated persons only can a work of this kind
possess any high interest, for the mass of ordinary
readers require higher-flavoured dishes in the book
way than the history of any University can possibly
possess. As very profitable speculations, therefore,
such works are rarely brought forward, but when
such works afford sufficient proofs that they contain
all the genuine facts which are required for public
information, which can possibly be obtained, and
when such information has been arranged in due
chronological order, placed clearly, without any con-
fusion of terms or ideas, before its readers, then the
work is looked upon with favour by the well-informed
classes, as one more useful than ornamental, and from
their being placed in the utility class, such works
often become standards of reference for future gene-
rations, long after their gayer contemporaries have
sunk into forgetfulness.

In the instance befere us, it is quite evident tha
the author has not spared either
time, labour,
body
ex
pense, in collecting and arranging the great of
facts which he must have been some years in ac-
quiring.
The work is dedicated " to the educated classes of
Great Britain and Ireland," and is—as the author
a
states—intended to embrace ll
ofthetopicsinterest
connected with the only university of lreland. For
besides an account of the foundation, and a narrative
of the earlier circumstances of its history—it contains
copious biographical sketches of the prelates, states-
men, and other persons, eminent for piety and learn-
ing, or as poets, historians, and orators—who have
been educated within its walls, tog ether with a re-
gular succession of its provosts (governors) and all
the fellows seriatim to the present year—with notices
of the benefactions bestowed upon this institution to
this time.
The volume is also illustrated with coloured en-
gravings of the academic costumes—and vignette
views from drawings made on the spot, in which the
architecture and scenery of the college are accurately
represented—from these it would appear, that this
university is of great extent, and possesses fair claims
to architectural elegance.
The last, or biographical division of the work af-
fords good evidence, that much cultivated talent has
emanated from this seminary of classical and scientific
learning—and has done the Church and State good
service in every department, -whether diplomatic,
ecclesiastical, civil, or military.
The author does not pay his court to any party, but
rather points out their errors in a plain, intelligible
manner; he is evidently most anxious to assist in
bringing about a community of interests and good
feeling between the British and Irish people which,
he shows, would only require a sincere determination
and honest policy on the part of our Government to
accomplish, and he clearly states that the disunion,
discontents, and turbulence of the lower orders in
Ireland are caused by the bad system of government
with which English politicians began to rule that
country, and which our Ministries have adopted in
succession to the present day, with scarcely any altera-
tion in the principle, although somewhat modified
in the practice. The work altogether gives the best
history we have yet seen of Trinity College,
and at
the present time it will be read with deep interest,
for it points out the existing regulations of that
celebrated university, and the benefits which it has
conferred on a certain portion of the community, as if
to guide the Government to a more comprehensive
system of education, which shall not only teach the
people well, but hold out academical honours which
may distinguish the successful candidates for life.
A few extracts will show the vicissitudes to
which this seat of learning has been subjected.
Cromwell, it appears, treated it with silent contempt.
The beauties of literature and the divine inspirations
of the Greek and Boman poets had no charms for