MINUTES OF EVIDENCE.
131
" The fact that in the Visitation Order of 1658, and subsequently, the Board of Control of Leipzig Univer¬ sity—then the High Consistory Court of Dresden—im¬ pressed upon the faculties that, in the event of a vacancy in a Professorship, they should consider not only candidates that had graduated in Leipzig, but also capable men from outside, proves that the prepon¬ derance of local appointments is not to be ascribed to the Board of Control.
" In comparing the different Universities, it is readily seen that the principle of calling Professors from other Universities came into operation in the lately estab¬ lished Universities because they had no traditions.
"It is not the method of election, nor the influence of the faculties, nor the amounts of the salaries provided, which produced this improvement—otherwise the Uni¬ versities with autonomy would have been the best—but, above all, the principle which came into operation in the 19th century, that in appointing new Professors, regard must be had to the importance of the ability to prosecute original research, and to the importance of obtaining men who were not merely tutors, but con¬ vinced of, and prepared to guarantee from personal ex¬ perience the truth of, what they were required to teach.
"That this change is a matter of slow growth, and that the authorities have made several mistakes, and to some extent resisted this principle, must be admitted.
But, on the whole, the system has proved itself as good as any human institution can be."
I quote this in order to show that other Universities have found by experience that the principle upon which Professors have been selected in this College from the beginning is the best.
It has frequently been stated, with regard to the stu¬ dents that come to this College, that a great number come from the North of Ireland.
I have taken the trouble to find out the address of every student who has entered the College from the beginning, or at least the great majority of them.
I have examined the Registrar's books in order to get at the facts.
Since the foundation of the College 2,650 students have entered, but in the case of 138 of them no address is recorded.
The remaining 2,512 are distributed in the following manner:—
From County Galway, .
.
.
680
„
Dublin, .
.
191
„ Tyrone, .
.
.190
,,
Clare, .
.
.151
,,
Antrim, .
.
.
145 Down, .
.
.121
Derry, .
.
.110
,,
Limerick, .
.
.
108 Mayo, .
.
.
94
,, Armagh, .
.
.53
„ Tipperary, ...
59
,, Donegal, .
.
.50
'.
,,
Roscommon, .
• 42
,, Monaghan, .
.
40
„
Cavan, .
.
.38
,, King's Co.,
.
• 32
,,
Westmeath, .
.
29
,, Longford, .
.
.29
Cork, ....
26
,,
Fermanagh, .
.
23 „• Meath, ...
20
,, Queen's Co.,
.
• 19
„
Waterford, .
• 17
,,
Carlow, .
.
.15
„
Kerry, ...
15
,,
Kildare, .
.
.14
,, Sligo, .
.
-13
,,
Leitrim, ,
.
.11
„
Wexford, .
.
.11
,,
Kilkenny, .
.
.
11
„
Louth,
8
,,
Wicklow, ...
3 Other Countries, .
.
•
-134 Total, .
.
.
2,512 Thus from County Galway alone 680, or nearly one-third of the Irish students, come, and one-half of the Irish students who entered come from this county and the counties in the immediate neighbourhood—Clare, Limerick, Mayo, Tipperary, and Roscommon.
I wish to refer to tho provisions of the Colleges Act, which, in my opinion, are adequate for the protection of faith and morals, and I may state that no complaint, so far as I know, has ever been made in reference to any attempt to injure or interfere with the faith or morals of any student.
7848.
Chairman.—Will
you kindly mention the num¬ bers of the sections that you specially refer to?—Sec-
»See
tion 14 of the Colleges Act, and Chapter 15 of the Statutes, make it an offence to be guilty of habitual neglect of attendance at Divine Worship, or at the reli¬ gious instruction provided in the College.
With regard to Section 16, about the licensing of lodging-houses, or places for the students to dwell, I beg to submit a form of licence which I have used since I was appointed Pre¬ sident of the College, and a form of application, in order that you may see the means employed in the licensing of boarding-houses.*
In Section 17 of the Colleges Act, provision is made for founding and endow¬ ing halls for the reception of students, and provision is also made for obtaining loans from the Board of Public Works for the erection of such halls, so that it would be quite possible to have a hall for Roman Catholic stu¬ dents, presided over by a Roman Catholic clergyman, where the students would be under his supervision when they are not in College.
If yon refer to the College statutes, chapter 5, you will find permission is given for students to reside in a seminary under the special jurisdiction of the Bishop, Moderator, or other consti¬ tuted authority of the Church or religious denomina¬ tion to which the student may belong, rnd there is also a chapter in the College statutes in which provision is made for rooms to be assigned for religious instruc¬ tion, solely or partly.
1 think these are the main points that I wish to refer to.
7849.
Most Rev.
Dr.
Healy.—There
are just one or two matters to which I wish to call your attention.
You say that if the government of this College were made more popular it would be likely to introduce a political atmosphere which would be injurious in many ways to the College.
Do you think the political atmosphere in Galway is stronger or more stimulating than the poli¬ tical atmosphere in Belfast?—Well,
I have not much experience of the political atmosphere of Belfast.
7850.
From your general knowledge, would not you be able to compare them?—I
should think that the poli¬ tical atmosphere would be very strong in Belfast, on account of the greater equality in the different political bodies there.
7851.
Nevertheless, we had a large body of evidence be¬ fore us there, which went to show that it was desirable to make the government of the Belfast College wider and more popular, and at the same time not a single witness expressed the least apprehension on the score of intro¬ ducing a political atmosphere into the College, but on the contrary, one witness expressly said that even though these feelings were strong outside, they never penetrated the College walls at all; would not that be likely to be the same in Galway ?—Well,
we have
_
an Urban Council here in Galway, and we had a Technical School Committee, of which I and several of the Pro¬ fessors were members, I suppose, because we were sup¬ posed to know something about the subject; but this Urban Council dismissed us all and elected a body of their own, on, I believe, political grounds.
7852.
Notwithstanding that, don't you think in these democratic days it would be desirable, even in educa¬ tional institutions, to have a popular element in their constitution, to prevent them from being too roughly handled?—I
quite agree that it would be desirable, if you were quite certain that there would be no political element introduced into the College; but I think the less we have to do with politics in a College the better.
7853.
I agree .with
you entirely in that, and I don't object in the least to what you stated, that it would be desirable that appointments to Professorships should be made on the grounds of character, academic distinction, and capability of pursuing research, and not on that of religion.
But is it desirable to exclude Professors on account of their religion ?—Oh,
no, no ; certainly not.
7854.
Might I ask you how many Roman Catholic Professors have you in this College ?—Three.
7855.
How many non-Catholics ?—There
are thirteen.
We have sixteen Professors altogether.
7856.
And the thirteen non-Catholics include the Pre¬ sident?—Yes.
, , , „ L, ,.
7857.
Suppose in Belfast you had thirteen Catholic Professors, with a Catholic priest at their head, and only three non-Catholics or Presbyterians ?—The
cases are not quite parallel.
I am not a priest.
7858.
Excuse me; wait till I finish the question.
Suppose you had in the Belfast College a staff consist¬ ing of thirteen Catholics, with a Catholic priest at their head, and only three non-Catholics or Presbyterians, do you think the people of Belfast would be satisfied with that College?—Well,
if the Professors were distin¬ guished men
...
7859.
No matter if they were the most distinguished men in Europe.
Do you think they would be satisfied page 503.
Q
Galway.
Avril 8, 1902.
Alexander Anderson, Esq.,
MA.,
1,1 .D.
