THE University of Dublin is the eldest daughter of the Reformation. Too frequently has that spirit, which revolted from the impurities of the church of Rome, been characterised by its opposition to exploded errors, rather than by an enlightened zeal for the substitution of what was more ac cordant with the spirit of the Gospel. It is, perhaps, true, that its ravages were as necessary for the purpose of dislodging superstition from her strong holds, as its calmer and more contemplative labours for giving form and permanency to true religion. But the mind dwells with a grateful complacency upon the one, while no conviction of the advantages conferred by the other, can altogether prevent a distressing sense of the havock and the barbarism by which it was attended. We admire and venerate the great and indomitable Scottish reformer. His zeal, his energy, his courage, his perseverance, his lofty eloquence, his fervid piety-all command attention and are entitled to praise; but he appears to most advantage, at least so we think, when we endeavour to view him alone, and disconnected from the proceedings to which he was accessary, and the circumstances by which he was surrounded. The mind requires to be excited, to an unnatural degree, either to partake in or to approve of devastation and ruin; and, when the causes which justified them have ceased to agitate us, the effects are always unsightly and painful. And therefore the work of reform was but half accomplished by the removal of ancient errors or abuses, until an establishment had been founded, and institutions arose, which were calculated to give, to the purified form in which Christianity had appeared, a station and a stability suitable to its dignity and commensurate with its import

ance.

Elizabeth revived the reformed religion from a state of almost total extinction, until she fanned it into a steady and lasting flame. Her measures were at the same time prudent and bold; and her whole reign characterised by a wisdom and sagacity,

both in the planning and the conduct of her measures, of which history af fords but few examples. After having established the reformed religion in England, and placed it upon a basis not likely to be speedily subverted, her attention was naturally, and most anxiously, directed to Ireland, in the hope of discovering some remedy for the manifold evils under which it laboured; and the University of Dublin was the ripest as well as the most permanent product of her enlightened enquiries.

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It was one advantage of the vigorous, and, we must say, somewhat despotic government of Elizabeth, that her ministers could venture to be statesmen, and shape their measures less according to the dictates of popular caprice, and more with reference to the general and lasting interests of the country. They could afford, politically, to cast their bread upon the waters," in the sure and certain hope of finding it after many days." The University of Dublin could serve no present purpose, and must involve a considerable expense. How much soever future generations might benefit by it, Elizabeth could have very little hope of seeing any pleasing or useful results from it in her day. But she and her ministers nobly looked beyond present interests and present exigencies, and resolved, in the midst of wars and rumours of wars, to give a beginning to an establishment for the encouragement of sound learning and true religion, for which unborn ages would have reason to bless their memories.

The first hint for the establishment of an Irish University was received from Sir John Perrot-who was promoted by Elizabeth to the responsible office of Lord Deputy of Ireland. His plan was, "to dissolve the cathedral of St Patrick, and appropriate the revenues to the foundation and maintenance of two universities."* This proposal, which is described by Sir James Ware as being very laudable, had it not been founded on the ruin of so ancient a cathedral, was traversed, and, finally, frustrated, by Archbishop

scholars They and their successors for ever were constituted a body pos litie and corporate, with the usual powers and privilegessThe provost ship was made elective, as were also the fellowships and scholarships; and the provost, fellows, and scholars, were empowered to make and constitute laws from time to time, for the better government of their body; a power of conferring degrees was also granted; and it was provided, that when the fellows should have completed seven years in their office, from the time of their taking the degree of Master of Arts, they should be displaced from their fellowship, and others elected in their room, for the benefit of the church and the kingdom. Lord Burleigh was the first Chancellor and that office was also declared thenceforth elective; the provost and the major part of the fellows being the electors. The Chancellor, the Vice Chancellor, the Archbishop of Dublin, the Bishop of Meath, the Treasurer at War, the Chief Justice, and the Mayor of the city of Dublin, were the visitors, with power to correct and punish all the graviora crimina, and to determine all such strifes, actions, and controversies, as the provost and major part of the fellows could not compose. Individuals were permitted and encouraged to make donations and confer aids upon the new establishment; and its property was declared to be perpetually exempt from ball public burdens. artalda

Of a public subscription, which was set on foot by the Lord Deputy Fitzwilliam, the amount does not appear; but it may be inferred that it was -not very considerable, from the returns of Robert Taaffe, one of the persons -delegated on that embassy of solicitastion, who complains of the prevalent 1inability which he found, even amongst sthose who were well disposed to the British government, to afford a liberal compliance with his request." to But not on that account was the good work retarded. On the 13th of March, 1591, the first stone of the bbuilding was laid, with great solemnibty by Thomas Smith, mayor of the veity; and on the 9th of January, 1593, the first students were admitted. JeffThen came a calamity by which the infant establishment was wellnigh

extinguished It seemed doomed oto experience the fate of Marcellus, and to be born only to die.fs The endows ments of which it had become possesse ed by the munificence of its illustrious founder, lay in the province of Ulster, where the rebellion of Tyrone now raged with implacable fury; and where were seen all the circumstances of arined contention, except discipline and the laws of war. In such a state of things, when the fierceness of party breathed nothing but ravage and desolation, the revenues of the college were rendered nugatory; and the foundation must have been as effectually dissolved as if its charter had been rescinded, were it not for the anxious interest which Archbishop Loftus evinced towards its welfare. That spirited prelate happened to be, at that time, one of the Lords Justices, on whom the civil government of Ireland devol ved; and the authority of his high station enabled him, without much delay, to realize his benevolent intentions. He made the necessities of the University a consideration of state; and the urgency of the crisis was met by a prompt application of relief, which se cured it from the immediate shock of perilous events. The relief consisted in the grant of a concordatum of forty pounds per annum, and an allowance of six dead payes, (morte payes) out of such checques as should be imposed on her Majesty's army The forty pounds were ordered to be paid quarterly; and the dead payes, which amounted to seventy pounds a year, to be paid every month.t

Nor did the fostering liberality of Elizabeth's government stop here. Other aids were granted, as the exigencies required, and the cradle of learning and the arts was only rocked by the earthquake, by which every other establishment in the country was almost shaken to its foundation. James the First endowed it with large estates in the province of Ulster, and also settled on it a pension of four hundred pounds, payable out of the Exchequer.

The origin of the library is curious and interesting, and we should not do the subject justice, if we did not give it in the words of the able and ingenious writer from whom we have already quoted so largely.

The library, which forms so splen did a part of the collegiate establishment, was commenced in the year 1603, and originated in a circumstance to which, in the history of no other nation, is there any thing similar. In that year, the affairs of Ireland having been somewhat composed, by the suppression of Tyrone's rebellion, and the expulsion of the Spaniards from Kinsale, the army determined upon doing some notable act, which might be a continual memorial of the gallantry of military men, and at the same time expressive of their own respect for the interests of learning and religion. With such a view, they raised among themselves the sum of L.1800, in those days a very great subscription, and then resolved that Dr Chaloner and Mr James Usher should have the said sum paid into their hands, for the purchase of such books as they might think most suitable to the formation of a library, to be annexed for ever to the newly created University of Dublin, as a testimony of their esteem for literature, and regard for the improvement of the youth of Ireland. The learned persons who were delegated on so honourable a mission, undertook it with pleasure, and performed it with that talent and assiduity which justified the selection. They came over to England for the purpose of better discharging their trust, where they obtained the best works that were to be met with, in the most import ant departments of knowledge; and procuring others of a valuable character from other countries, laid the foundation of that long-accumulated and magnificent pile of various literature, which has given to the University the most useful and admirable of its attractions. It is worthy of observation, that, at the same juncture, Sir Tho mas Bodley was in London, making similar purchases for his newly instituted library at Oxford; between him and the Irish gentlemen a friendly intercourse took place, by which the objects of both were reciprocally promoted; so that the famous Bodleian library, and that of the University of Dublin, the two most superb monuments of learning in the empire, commenced at the same time, and under the auspicious circumstance of enlightened co-operation. When we recollect how much literature suffered from the barbarous spirit with which an

cient war was waged, or from the cat sualties which have attended it at all t times;-when we call to mind the many instances of all that is sacred or venerable, being involved in the pro miscuous ruin of its course, whether 2 impelled by ferocity or a more disci plined ambition ;-and when we consider how often the agents of its evils partake of its character, and become regardless of the arts of peace, from habits of inhuman excitation, we shall view, with a peculiar sentiment, this act of the Irish army, who consecrated the offerings of victory to the huma nizing spirit of improvement. The long-collected and stupendous mass of Alexandrian knowledge, representing the various intellect and genius of ci vilized man, was as fatally visited by the fortunes of the accomplished Ju lius, as by the exterminating ignorance of a barbarian caliph; while the mili tary origin of the library of Dublin college forms a singular and beautiful contrast with those events of war, which history has viewed through unaffected tears, and with indignant remembrance."

In the year 1614, the University ob tained the important privilege of sending two members to Parliament. We will not venture, at present, to enquire how far the interests of learning have been advanced by this addition to its corporate respectability. The indi viduals who, from time to time, have been thought worthy of representing the college of Dublin, have, doubtless, been distinguished by intellect and learning in no ordinary degree. But the intrigue and the turmoil of a contested election are little congenial to the seat of science and the muses; and the privilege was, we believe, conferred more with reference to court than to academic interests. It was part of the policy by which James succeeded in establishing a borough interest in the Irish parliament, which was found necessary to enable him to carry into effect his bold projects of tentative legislation. It is chiefly memorable, therefore, as being the first instance in which the government endeavoured to turn to any political account the cor porate importance of the new Univer sity.

It was unfortunate that, in the ori ginal charter, the office of provost was made elective. While the Fellows continued few in number, no sensible

inconvenience was experienced. "But when, from three, their original number, they increased to seven, the excitement towards power introduced a spirit of party; and philosophers were induced to pass the limits of their ac complishments, to maintain an ill graced rivalry in the arts of political intrigue. But there was another source of contention the frequent and fatal visitations to which the metropolis was subject, in those times, from the plague, made the fellows provide against any great or sudden diminution of their number, by the appointment of a sort of associate fellows, called probationers, who were to succeed, by seniority, to the vacant fellowships, as they might occur. By this plan, there were always persons of accredited qualifications, to supply such losses in the superior ranks of the corporation, as, from remaining unfilled, would be productive of inconvenience or delay in the collegiate proceedings. Those probationers were nine in number; and, in course of time, not being content with expectancy, founded upon casualties, began to assume the name, and insist upon enjoying the privileges, of a fellow; especially that important one, of a vote in the election of provost. In the propriety of those claims, the regular fellows could not be persuaded to acquiesce; and as the former persisted in their demands, the college was degraded into an arena of disputed rights and controverted decisions."* The end of this was, that recourse was had to the sovereign authority, and the charter was formally surrendered into the hands of the King, who, in the year 1637, granted a new one, accompanied by a body of statutes, framed by Archbishop Laud, upon the model of the existing codes of the Cambridge University. Dr William Chappel was provost at this time, and incurred much odium for the part which he acted, as well in procuring the new charter, as in his general misgovernment of the University. He was afterwards promoted to the bishoprick of Cork, and his conduct became a subject of parliamentary enquiry, which was suspended until it was forgotten, by the troubles which almost immediately ensued, when the kingdom was again convulsed by civil war in all its

The condition of the Irish, almost from the period when the English first obtained a footing in the country, was most unfavourable to improvement and civilization. A system of confiscation the most extensive, the most arbitrary, and the most capricious, that has ever been heard of in any age or nation, rendered all property insecure. The natives were slaves to the heads of their respective septs, who were themselves dependent on masters almost as much removed from the character of freemen. "The Irish had always been considered, not as subjects, but as aliens, and even as enemies, out of the protection of the law; in consequence whereof all marriages and alliances with them, and even commerce, were prohibited, and they might be oppress ed, spoiled, and killed by the English, at pleasure, not being allowed to bring any action, nor any inquisition lying for the murder of an Irishman. This made it impracticable for them to exercise any commerce, or settle in any town; but forced them to stand on their defence, to fly to the mountains, and there live in a barbarous manner, in a slavish dependence on their lords, to whom they had recourse for protection. These lords governed them according to the Brehon law, in a very arbitrary, as well as oppressive manner, punishing them at their plea sure, taking coigne and livery of them, which made the land waste and the people idle; and by their cosherings, sessings of the kerne, cuttings, tollages, and spendings, reducing the common sort to a state of absolute slavery, and to a necessity of following their chiefs whenever they pleased to rebel. For they had no estates of freehold or inheritance, nor any security of enjoying what belonged to them, their wives ↑ as well as their goods being liable at any time to be taken away at the pleasure of their lords, who were, after all, in as precarious a state with regard to their succession, as their vassals with respect to their possessions." Thus had the English sown the wind, and is it surprising that they should have reaped the whirlwind Even the