which are always paid by instalments; and once placed on the foundation, they are liable to no expense whatever, except for the necessary furniture of their rooms, their clothes, and their books. Dr. Crotty, the president, estimates the value of the first at a very few pounds-the rest may cost 10l. or 12l. per annum. Their travelling charges must be very low, as they seldom leave the college, even to enjoy the short annual vacation allowed. Formerly, when those destined for orders were educated abroad, principally at Paris, Douay, Salamanca, and Rome, a much larger expenditure was required-seldom less than 40l. or 50l. a-year. Such students, it is evident, must have come from a higher class of society. It was when the state of Europe at the close of the 18th century rendered the maintenance of this system of foreign education impossible, that Maynooth was founded by the 35 Geo. III. c. 21, (Ireland.) Two acts have subsequently been passed, 40 Geo. III. c. 85, (Ireland,) and 48 Geo. III. c. 145. By these the chancellor and the three chief judges of Ireland for the time being, together with three Catholics specified by name, are made visitors-eleven Catholic prelates and fourteen Catholic laymen trustees; the interior government of the college being vested in the president and council, all of whom, as well as the professors, are elected by the trustees. The 48 Geo. III. relates only to the legal powers of the trustees, with regard to suing and being sued, and enables them to purchase and acquire land, beyond what they then possessed, (seventy-four acres on leases renewable for ever,) to the amount of 1000l. per annum. They now receive from the public an annual grant of about 9000l., besides two sums of 8000l. paid in 1795, and 5000l. in 1808. From donations they have property producing about 900l. a-year. The number of the students at the date of this report was three hundred and ninety-one, of whom two hundred and fifty were on the foundation, one hundred and ten pensioners, who pay 217. annually to the college, twenty bursers, and eleven in the Dunboyne class ;* the whole of them being recommended by the Roman Catholic bishops of the dioceses to which they belong.

They are divided into seven classes, in each of which they spend

The Bursers are those for whose education provision has been made by private individuals. The Dunboyne class onght to consist of twenty, selected from the senior scholars. They receive an annual income from the College where they may remain three years longer than the other students. The fund for their support arises partly from an estate left by Lord Dunboyne of 5007. a-year, partly from a parliamentary grant of 7001. a year, given on the understanding that there should always be twenty in that class, in hopes, we suppose, that some few students might have time to acquire general information. The trustees, however, in direct violation of this arrangement, have never kept the number complete, and have taken upon themselves to devote the surplus arising by this means to other and totally different purposes.

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one year the first is devoted to the classics; the second, to rhetoric and belles-lettres; the third, to logic, metaphysics, and ethics; the fourth, to mathematics and natural philosophy. The three next comprise the students of divinity, under the superintendence of the professors of Hebrew and sacred scriptures, of moral, and of dogmatic theology. With this ends their course of instruction, unless the student should have been elected to the Dunboyne class. By this time they have attained the age for priests' orders, as they generally enter about seventeen, and they then return, in number about fifty annually, to their respective dioceses. Undoubtedly the time occupied in their classical and mathematical education is sufficient to give them as much know, ledge in those branches as it is necessary for a parish priest to possess. It does not seem, however, that the extent of their learning is commensurate with the time devoted to it. A book or two of Homer, and half a dozen odes of Horace appear to be almost a twelvemonth's employment; and their rhetoric, of which, it is said, they know something and their ethics, of which it is owned they know nothing, fill up another year. We are, of course, unable to pronounce on the merits and learning of the professors; but were we to judge of all from the qualifications of one of them, we should not rate their acquirements high. Mr. Callan, the mathematical lecturer, was asked, if his course embraced the subject matter of the sixth book of Euclid? In his answer, he professed total ignorance of its contents. It would have been perfectly consistent with this, had the classical lecturer disclaimed all knowledge of Virgil and Herodotus, or the rhetorician, of Quinctilian and Aristotle.

The instructions given in divinity require rather more particular notice. We shall presently examine into the nature of the doctrines inculcated; but we wish here to call the attention of our readers to the different portions of Scripture read, and more especially to those omitted. Of the Old Testament seldom above two, or at most three, books of Moses are read. Of the New, the greater part of the four Gospels, and the Epistles to the Romans, the Corinthians, the Hebrews, Titus, Timothy, and some of those of St. Peter. The principal omissions are, the whole of the Prophets, the Apocrypha, which are reckoned canonical by the church of Rome, the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, first general Epistle of St. John and the Revelationsparts which, we cannot but feel, require almost more than any others the explanation of an able commentator, Of these, the Prophets contain many passages relating to antichrist, which Protestants apply to the pope and the Catholic church. The two Epistles, we have mentioned, are considered as bearing strongly

VOL. XXXVII. NO. LXXIV.

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on the same question, especially 2 Thess. c. ii., and 1 Gen. Ep. of St. John, c. ii. and iv. We do not affirm, that, in omitting these very important and beautiful parts of Scripture, they were solely guided by a desire to escape from the difficulty in which they would have found themselves, had they been called upon by the students to explain the passages considered by Protestants as most particularly applicable to the Catholic religion. These omissions, however, have a suspicious appearance, and we cannot avoid laying considerable weight upon this fact; the more so, when we recollect their conduct with regard to the decalogue, on which no lectures are delivered, and to which reference is seldom or never made. Indeed, in Catholic catechisms, and books of religious instruction, the second commandment is frequently omitted. We remember, in the course of the debate in the House of Commons, last year, on the Catholic question, that Mr. Peel was violently attacked for having ventured to mention this fact, and for having produced the twenty-fifth edition of a catechism, printed with the approbation of Dr. Milner, and of the four Roman Catholic archbishops in Ireland, by Mr. R. Coyne, the publisher, we beg leave to remark, of Maynooth. In this, the second commandment is omitted; but the tenth is divided into two, that the name Decalogue may not appear ex facie a misnomer, and this omission, we can safely affirm, is very usual in Ireland. We can further add, that in many Catholic countries on the continent, we have ourselves seen a vast variety of religious works, in which the decalogue is inserted in this mutilated form; and we must honestly confess that, however unjustifiable is such an alteration in the words of the Bible, we do not, by any means, consider it as impolitic or uncalled for on the part of the Roman Catholics.

In the course of their examinations, many of the professors stated, that every student possessed the Bible, and was not only encouraged, but expected to study it. This assertion, unlooked for, as we are sure it was, by some of the commissioners, was certainly calculated to impress them with the belief, that a greater liberty of investigation was allowed at Maynooth than is usually met with in Catholic seminaries. They might thus be induced to imagine, that the Bible was not a sealed book, of which small portions only were selected for comment, or permitted to be read; but that the whole was laid before the students, and they were desired to inquire and satisfy their minds. When, however, strict scrutiny was made into the facts, the result was very different. It is true, that a regulation exists, by which every student is desired to provide himself with a Bible on his arrival at college. The regulation is, however, of very recent date in the first place, and in the second place it is very negligently enforced. The fact

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seems to be, that, before this rule was made, very few possessed the Bible; and that, since that time, many are without it; and, moreover, that the professors, though nominally encouraging the young men to peruse it, contrive that little leisure shall be left at their disposal for that object: for so restricted are they by the number of hours occupied in the public lectures, and by the necessary preparation, that they have barely time to examine those passages pointed out to them in class. Nor does it appear that the students themselves are in the least anxious to profit even by the very limited opportunities they may enjoy, as few or none ever read the Bible in private. One answer in particular struck us as most remarkable. Mr. George Chapman might, perhaps, in an idle mood, have taken up the volume (the New Testament) if it lay before him, and read merely to see the thing;' and another student of twenty-two had never read any part of it, except the Gospel of St. John.' This virtual exclusion of the Scriptures is, indeed, in perfect accordance with the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church; and if some indulgence, in that respect, is granted to those destined for orders, the same reluct→ ance still remains to open the book to the laity. 'The church of Rome,' says Dr. Curtis, titular archbishop of Armagh, in the Appendix to the Ninth Report of these Commissioners, p. 46, never has yet, and most likely never will, give a formal sanction to a translation of the Scriptures into any of the vulgar languages;' and Dr. Crotty owns he apprehends danger from a use of the Bible. In unison with these feelings has been the conduct of the Catholic clergy; and reluctantly, from want of space, do we content ourselves with referring our readers to the testimony of the Roman Catholic archbishops contained in the Appendix to the Ninth Report, to which, were we not fearful of exceeding our limits, we would gladly devote some pages, as affording the strongest possible confirmation of the charges brought against them, of resisting the distribution of the word of God.

The discipline enforced at Maynooth is a question of some consequence, since much may be done in early life by a too strict or a too relaxed system of education, towards rendering the character gloomy and morose, or careless and licentious. Between these there is a just medium, difficult, perhaps, to attain, but which is not even sought after at this college.

It is avowed, that the restrictions upon the liberty of the students are greater than in any other seminary in Ireland: we have no difficulty in adding, that they are greater than in almost any other seminary in Europe. Two months in every year are nominally assigned for vacations; but a student cannot return to his home, even during that short space, without express permission from his superiors,

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superiors, which is sparingly and reluctantly yielded. When in the college, out of the twenty-four hours, he has not quite three for recreation; and if he is in orders, which about half the students are, upwards of an hour out of the three ought to be devoted to reading his breviary. Moreover, except during that hour or two destined to amusement, he is condemned to profound silence, and any deviation from this rule is almost uniformly visited with the severest reprehension. Even during their time for relaxation, their liberty is far from extensive. In rainy weather, they are confined to the cloisters, though in fine they are permitted to play at ball, or possibly at prison-bars, in a gravelled court; but they are strictly prohibited from amusing themselves with foot-ball, as that game is not deemed decorous for lads of seventeen-a notion worthy of the great Martinus Scriblerus. Not satisfied with curtailing the amusements of the students, the superiors seek to become acquainted, if possible, with their most private feelings, and in pursuance of this desire, they claim and exert a right of searching all desks. Nay, more, they affirm that no letter should enter or leave the college till they have perused it, though they have not of late dared to enforce this unwarrantable assumption of power.

It will, of course, be readily imagined that if they are thus strict with regard to their actions, they are not less rigid with respect to the books they allow them to read. The authorities, why we cannot tell, seem reluctant to enter on that subject. Their catalogue does not, like the Index Expurgatorius of Rome, contain a list of forbidden, but only of permitted works, the number of which, as far as we can collect, appears to be very small. We were much surprised at some which were excluded; for besides several which might have been expected, such as Gibbon, Voltaire, and the French Encyclopedie, they prohibit all works on surgery or anatomy, together with others containing what we should reckon most valuable information, The direc tions on this subject are most strictly enforced; expulsion is the penalty of disobedience. The introduction of newspapers is also

We do not think it would have been amiss if the Catholic clergy in Ireland had availed themselves of the power of prohibition, with regard to some of the books used in the schools under their charge. The Bible is strictly forbidden, but the following books, amongst others, are read: The Irish Rogues and Rapparees-The Life of Captain Freney the Robber-The Garden of Love-The Feast of Love-The Effects of Love-Faublas-The Monk-The Life of Moll Flanders-Philander Flashaway-Fanny Meadows-Sir Harry Wildair-Lydia (a loose novel)-Mon Oncle Thomas-Aventures de Mariane-Liaisons Dangereuses, (the three last translated) and Pastorini's Prophecies. In the schools in the counties of Donegal, Kerry, Kildare, and Galway, there were found sixteen catechisms, ninety-seven books on religion, and three hundred and sixty-four novels and works of entertainment, of which the above are part; which we have selected, almost by chance, out of many quite as improper. The commissioners chose those four counties at hazard, as a specimen of the whole.

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