The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1852-01-20 00:00:00

THE MAYNOOTH QUESTION.

A VERY important meeting is to be held this
evening, in the Collegiate Institution. It :s to
afford an opportunity for the laity to reconsider
the whole question of the endowment of the Roman
Catholic College of St. Patrick, at Maynooth ; and
to adopt measures to force upon parliament the
necessary revision of the whole subject. We offer
no apology to our readers, as we are sure they
require none, for anticipating some of the views
that may be taken, or for noticing others that may
possibly be overlooked.
The establishment of this institution took place,
by act of parliament, in the year 1795: This was
during the former of Mr. Pitt's two adminis-
trations, which extended from 1783 to 1801, and
which included Earl Gower, the Dukes of Rutland
and Richmond, Lords Mulgrave, Neville, Thurlow,
Fitawilliam, &c. It must be borne in mind that,
at this time, the Roman Catholics of Ireland were
obliged to send for clerical education to the Con-
tinent ; and the expense unavoidably incurred was
one reason why the demands of religion were often
but inadequately supplied. The disturbed state of
France, from the breaking out of the Revolution in
1789, the excitement which prevailed in Spain,
Italy, and in Ireland itself, and the difficulty of
communication, threatened, in a great degree, to
deprive the Roman Catholics of clergy with the
usual amount of qualifications. The Premier had,
therefore, a cause of some weight to design when
proposing this measu.e ; and almost every member
in the house could verify his statement.
There was another reason which had still more
power with the majority. The disturbances which
had originated in France were not limited either by
the Rhine or the ocean ; they spread to other
countries in which disaffection was smouldering, so
that Baines appropriately designated his history as
that of the " Wars of the French Revolution."
Ireland had her grounds of complaint, and Eng-
land's extremity seemed to be her opportunity.
There was no lack of political emissaries, crafty
diplomatists, and skilful interpreters between
French statesmen and insurgent British subjects.
And who does the reader think these were ? The
most able were the candidate and the inducted priests;
yet none so readily eluded the grasp of the law. Itwas
undeniable that they had a proper and satisfactory
reason for visiting the Continent, and who could
prove that they were not absorbed in the study of
the Fathers, at Douay, the Sorbonne, Salamanca,
or Rome. The confessional was a part of their
religion, what right had any one to interfere with
the confidences which were there given or received ?
They spoke French, Italian, or Spanish fluently,
English of course, and Irish in a large number of
cases ; but were not these foreign tongues neces-
sary, for the intercourse which their connection
required ? To these plain questions, it was vain to
reply by presumptions, suspicions, moral convic-
tions. The Ministry yielded to what they believed
to be a political necessity; they calculated that the
price of home education would be well laid out in
the prevention of excuses for rebellion; and it is
sufficient to say that the Parliament coincided with
them.

We will not be understood as doing injustice to
the Irish priests of foreign education. If they
were sometimes lax in principle, we should bear in
mind that the Jesuit was afoot then as well as now,
and that no species of Jesuitism is so seducing as
that which assumes the garb of patriotism, yet
believes only what is on its own side. They were
at laast men of the world, men of education, men
of gentlemanly manners in social intercourse.
None who remember the " Fathers" of the old
school, who have probably all now vanished, but must
remember the comparative respect with which they
were looked upon even by the Protestants, laity and
clergy. They were as superior to the vulgar tra-
ducers of the Cahill stamp, as Hercules to an
ordinary man.

The Act of 1795, then, was avowedly one of
expediency. It left the question of principle open,
whether a Government, Protestant in name and

reality, may, with consistency or propriety, promote
the teaching of doctrines that are anti-Protestant.
Some opposed it on the latter or higher ground,
and some no doubt on the former or lower; and
to the present hour, the supporters and opponents
of the Maynooth endowment both embrace these
two classes of views. In the present state of

human opinions, it seems as if those who stood on

the ground of principle merely, would never secure
the victory, however they may succeed in carrying
conviction. The present is the age of expediency.
The statesman yields to a strong necessity, but he
seems to recognise that only ; and so long as he
can make out a case, he has an argument against
the man of principle which is at least sufficient for
himself. He can besides resort to the argument of
consistency ; which sometimes means perseverance
in doing wrong. He asks why such an outcry is
made about a few thousands to Popery in Ireland,
as if Canada and Australia were not provinces of
our united empire. Why do Protestants look to
Leinster, Munster, and Connaught, while in Ulster,
"the soul-destroying heresy" of Unitarianism is
endowed ? Admitting that Popery is anti-Protest-
ant, there are other sects of whom less evil is
spoken, who scarcely conceal the fact that they are
anti-Christian. Now this form of the argument,
specious as it is, we are prepared to meet. We are
ready to follow the supporter of the Maynooth en-
dowment to his low ground of expediency ; and
dislodged from that he has no other resort.
At present there is no difficulty of communica-
tion with the continent, were that necessary; for
cardinal and vicar, priest and layman, go and come
at pleasure from Rome to Vienna, from Vienna to
Westminster. However the nations may talk of
war, this is, in effect, an age of peace. The Pope
is wiser than in the days of his predecessors ; he
does not lay one kingdom under an interdict, or
excite a foreign enemy to invade us—he only dis-
charges at us an Apostolical letter. England too
is wiser than France; her bayonets do not bristle
around the Flaminian Gate, her first broadside is
an Ecclesistical Titles Bill. Instead of bullets we
have bulls; and instead of bloodshed we have a
war of argument. But the electric telegraph gives
the instantaneous announcement of intelligence,

intercourse is carried on with the acknowledged
expedition and cheapness of steam ; so that not a
single facility existed in 1795 for communication
with the continent, but is now increased, in some
instances, ten-fold.
And with regard to the dread of foreign politics,
we have outgrown the hobgoblin fears of our child-
hood. In every English newspaper the speeches
of the most rabid repealer or red-republican are
reported as faithfully as if they were the holy
counsels of a canonised saint. John Mitchell and
Louis Blanc never had to find fault with mankind
for overlooking their claims to public attention ;
and there is as much pointless and powerless trea-
son recorded in single number of the Nation or the
Tablet as would have sufficed to convulse a country
in '9B. The cry of " Repeal" has died into an
echo; the patriotism of the collecting-box is now
a stale device ; the valour of the man of the
vitriol bottles and the hero of the sword, has, like
Bob Acres, oozed out at their finger ends; and the
World newspaper, which supported "law and
order," for a consideration, is dead and gone. The
second arrangement of Pitt is therefore as weak as
the first. We might send the ardent student
abroad at government expense, so far as danger is
concerned, to complete his education at New York
or Vienna, in the purlieus of Paris, or the priestly
atmosphere of Rome. And so far are we from
fearing that he will learn to speak French, we only
wish in the first instance that he will speak reason-
ably good English, and if convenient put his tongue
on the civil list.
But what is to be done, it will be asked, to
secure the education of the Roman Catholic priest-
hood ? We reply, that is sufficiently cared for
already. There is no fewer than ten Roman Catho-
lic Colleges in England, six of which are connected
with the University of London ; and one in Scot-
land. These produce far more priests than are
required to supply the ordinary spiritual wants of
Great Britain. There are several in Wales, the
principal of which is in the Vale of Clwyd, but the
students in these are retained mainly for the Prin-
cipality. There are also English Colleges at Rome,
Valladolid, Lisbon, and Douay ; and Scotch Col-
leges at Rome, Valladolid, and Ratisbon ; so that
a deficiency in any part of the United Kingdom
may meet with a ready supply. In Ireland, there
are the Colleges of Carlow, Kilkenny, and Thurles,
all connected with the University of London ;
besides the College of St. Francis Xavier, at Belvi-
dere House, the Missionary College of Drumcon-
dra, the Colleges of Castleknork, Clongowes-wood,
Wexford, Killarney, Waterford, and St. Jarlath's,
Tuam. We have given this collection from the
official lists, in the [English Roman] " Catholic
Directory," for 1852, and the [lrish Roman] Catho-
lic Directory of a past year; yet it is evident that
all are not enumerated, for where we find only
twelve colleges recorded, the statistical list gives

twenty-two in connexion with the various dioceses.

If the College of Maynooth, therefore, were obliged
to fall back to-morrow, upon its own resources, its
buildings and land, granted by the Duke of Lein-
ster, the faithful would not be so entirely destitute

of education as Sir Robert Peel would have had us
believe.

But this is far from being the whole of the argu-
ment ; while the Roman Catholics have been in-

creasing their exclusive colleges, the public have

been forming open or truly Catholic ones. When it
was boasted in menace that the country contained

9,000,000 of inhabitants, there was but one Uni-

versity which poured its redundant undergraduates
.. _ _

into the English dioceses ; and the Roman Catho-

lics were mainly dependent upon Maynooth for
__ _

their clergy. Now that the population is reduced

to about 6,000,000, there are seven Colleges con-
nected with three Universities ! And besides those

we have already mentioned, unconnected with any
University, there is the College of St. Columba,
at Stackallen, connected with the Established

Church, an Independent College in Dublin, and

a new Presbyterian College in Derry. Well ! It is

a great comfort that if our little brother Patrick
should turn out a bad scholar after all, we cannot

accuse ourselves of neglecting his education. But

the whole proceeding is thoroughly redolent of the

shamrock. So long as nobody but Tommy Wyse
talked of Provincial Colleges, it was easy to cari-
cature " Wise Tommy ;" but the moment that

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Government declares its willingness to remedy the

evil, every one else wanted the same thing. The
nation may die of literary starvation, but the

moment that the danger is removed, it must die of

literary surfeit. Only one or two voices call for a
straw to throw to the drowning man, but the

_
moment he has reached the bank a thousand
- - -

- --
cumber him with assistance. The climax of— all

this absurdity is the projected " Catholic Univer-
sity;" a subject far too important to be disposed of
in the tail of an article. In the meantime we

heartily wish it—all the success it deserves !
The next evil with which Ireland has to contend,
and England, too, is a new phase of political de-

velopment.

In the days of Pitt, it was contended

that Pius VI. should take precedence of George 111.
Equal laws were sought:for:naturally enough. but
disloyalty was not openly boasted of. The patriots
of more recent times always made a wide distinc•

tion between the laws enaoted by Parliament, and