The time-honoured Universities of Oxford and Cambridge have been lately thrown open to Catholics, and Parliament and the country alike invite them to come and share its advantages. It is a strong temptation. Protestants have long enjoyed the benefits of University education; we know what sacrifices they are willing to make to attain it, and how the opportunities have all been theirs, while we, visited with a Julian persecution, had almost lost the aspiration after such a boon. But now we, too, are free and are invited. Can we decline the invitation? There are two classes of Catholics who may be fascinated by the prospects of an Oxford education. It is impossible to encourage them to avail themselves of it: they are Catholics, and the Church forbids. But the legitimate aspirations, which happen to have turned their thoughts towards Oxford, deserve full consideration; more than this, there is an obligation to provide, if possible, for their realization. It is not out of place, then, to endeavour briefly to detail the reasons which are working upon these two classes of Catholics. We shall then see more clearly where we stand, as to the necessity of a University education. After that, we may consider the nature of that tree of which we are forbidden the fruit; and next what possibility there is of beginning a Catholic University. First, then, there are the Catholic peers and landed proprietors and men of independent wealth-non-professional men. High education and careful intellectual training are no less instruments of power to the sons of these than they are to the man who carries his intellectual wares into the market, and is paid for them in money. Let us suppose the common case of the eldest sons of this class. The eldest son, frequently the younger son also, is to become a landed proprietor. Here then is to be a preparation for the exercise of a large important intellectual and moral influence over a numerous tenantry, beyond the mere granting of leases and receiving of rents, which can be done by anybody: there is to be an undefinable influence and authority to be acquired in the county, not only in elections and magistrates' meetings, and quarter sessions, and public gatherings, but in a thousand other ways and details, in which the public, with a rational docility, yields itself to the personal action of a superior intelligence when accompanied by a high sense of duty, and an honourable spirit of self-sacrifice. Men soon learn whom they can trust; and they choose for their leaders the men in whom they recognize the highest qualities. Then there are the more extended influence and power upon the whole ment, in one of which Catholics have hereditary seats, and in the other the full right to acquire seats whether for England or Ireland. But golden opportunities are worthless as dross where there is no perception, no ability, no sense of sacrifice and duty to use them. These are not days when the accidents of an ancestral name and a moderate income will carry much before them. The wealthy manufacturer, the successful merchant, the keen-eyed speculator, introduce a new element of social power, which they double in their sons by securing to them the benefits of a liberal education. The old hereditary squire, the baronet, or the peer, wrapped up in his ancient security, and consoling himself with his name and his pedigree, and supposing that the thoughts and family memories which exert so sweet a spell over himself and his domestic circle, must tell upon the world at large, is left far behind and forgotten. No; while neighbouring nations have fought their revolutions out on barricades, have confiscated property, expelled princes, destroyed aristocracies, stained their homes with blood and treason, we have been no more free than they from revolution, though of a different kind. It has been silent, quiet, unarmed, but steady and up-growing through the ranks of society. It has been the revolution sprung from hard-earned wealth, determined labour, and intellectual and moral power. Thoroughly well has this been understood and met by the ancestral houses of England. They have not been satisfied to bask in the sunshine of their woodland parks, nor to count up their broad acres, nor to trust to a name or a rent-roll. They have understood that, if they are to lead the country, if they are to have a part in determining the destinies of the nation, if they are to exercise a mission in the world, if they are to leave the trace of their life behind them, it must be by labour and self-sacrifice, and by cultivating their powers, as God has decreed, in the sweat of their brow. In this respect, England has given a luminous example to the world. While the aristocracies of other countries have become drivelling, emasculate, and an easy prey to the upward growth and jealousies of the classes below, in England, through labour devoted and conscientious, and a high sense of public duty, they are still in the front of the nation, and the nation accepts their leadership. It was Wellington's saying, " A strong sense of duty is the only safeguard for a public man." And in a memorable speech in the House of Lords, in noble words, he said, "I hope we shall never rest till we have found sufficient means for teaching the people of England their duty to their Maker, and their duty to one another founded on their duty to that Maker." Lord Dalhousie, on going to India as Governor-General, wrote in August, 1847, "Believe me, noble as the appointment is, it involves sacrifices which nothing but a strong sense of duty and the feeling of what God sent us into the world for, would induce me to undertake." Lord Canning, in going to fill the same office in 1855, wrote these words to a private friend: "There is no place like it for the means of usefulness which it puts into the power of one man. No such opportunity of leaving the mark of some good behind one, of doing something for the glory of God, can present itself twice in any life; and if rejected, it should be for reasons thoroughly self-satisfying and unquestionable, and in which no personal or selfish considerations should enter. But the wrench and uprooting, moral and physical, is awful, and I try not to think of it till the time comes. Feeling that my decision is the right one, you will, I hope, help me to follow out the course marked out for me, with a brave heart and a loyal spirit." Lord Aberdeen, in 1854, expressed his high sense of duty in these words in a private letter: "If we are right; if we are acting from the highest motive; if we have no selfish object in view, and are actuated by a spirit of justice and moderation, as we shall stand clear before God, I cannot doubt that the country sooner or later will adopt our principles and opinions. If we act ever as in the presence of the Highest Tribunal we are safe, let what will happen." A prayer was found in Peel's table, when he died, which he composed and always used: the tenor of it was asking for “ a right judgment in all things," "perseverance in the course of duty," and "an entire spirit of self-abnegation." We read in an article in Fraser's Magazine on Lord Herbert, a man of princely wealth, and heir to one of the oldest earldoms, that "he had formed so resolute a purpose to labour diligently throughout his public life, that an appointment whose duties were not much more than nominal had no attraction for him. He would take office for work's sake, or not at all. Had the situation I have accepted (so he wrote to his constituents) been one which required no exertion, no sacrifice on my part, I should unhesitatingly have declined it.' His career since then has proved that this was no decent profession made to veil the greed of a new gambler at the game of politics. It was the simple declaration of the principle which was to govern all his coming years." We have given these extracts because they serve as specimens of our meaning, when we speak of a sense of self-sacrifice and public duty being the only security to the aristocracy or the upper classes for obtaining and holding the lead in public matters in this country. A longer list of names would hardly add much to what we have indicated; yet, ad abundantiam, we may mention the names of Derby, Russell, Shaftesbury, Newcastle, Elgin, Clarendon, Panmure, Grey, Argyll; or, amongst younger and coming-on men, Stanley, Cranborne, Carnarvon, De Grey, Kimberley, Dufferin, and Hartington. To any one who knows how most of these have studied and laboured and toiled, like a clerk on his stool, like a merchant at his desk, neither too proud nor too indolent to spend themselves upon public duty-some of them very dragons of work, passing twelve hours a day in office,-it will be evident that mere title and wealth are not passwords to power and influence in England, nor the true instruments with which to accomplish work, or to serve even our own interests or those of our neighbour. The provisions of the Reform Bill are a fresh stimulus to the higher classes to cultivate and exert their powers, intellectual and moral. The people, who are acquiring a dominant power in the country, are in the same measure losing the "bump of reverence" for pedigree and title; and they are jealous of the privileges of wealth. It was one of their own, and of a shrewd and practical race, who hit the mind of the masses when he sang A king can mak' a belted knight, A marquis, duke, an' a that; The man's the gowd for a' that. Intelligence, labour, self-sacrifice, love of the public cause, alone command their respect, and easily secure authority and preeminence among the people. Unless the higher classes bring forth these higher qualities, they will find themselves swamped by the growing masses of the middle class, of the mechanics, artisans, and labourers; for these have learnt to think, to combine, to" strike"; they feel their strength, and the representation of the country is now in great measure in their hands. The United States are a warning and a lesson to us; they warn us how strong and irrepressible may become the power of the people; they teach us that if the higher classes cannot retain the leadership through the force and weight of intellecVOL. IX.—NO. XVIII. [New Series.] 2 D tual and moral power, they will be dragged along the ruck by the demagogues and the masses, and lose both name and honour. At the same time that these important considerations press themselves upon the mind of a father as he takes a broad view of the future duties and position of his son, he naturally falls back upon reflections on himself. He asks himself, how far have we Catholics of the United Kingdom recognized and entered into the public duties which belong to our State? We are twenty-six Peers, seventeen having seats; fifty Baronets, thirtytwo Members of Parliament,* some 200 independent landed proprietors in England alone; and what mark for good have any of us left upon our country? Some of us have been satisfied with our pedigrees and titles, our fine old trees and our fruitful acres; we have been content to live upon the reputation of our ancestors; we have feasted indolently upon the sweets which we could draw out of our position; we have sought an otium cum dignitate which we have not earned by labour. A life of public labour, sustained self-sacrifice to achieve great ends, with all the inconveniences and anxieties of responsibility, these we have abandoned to others. We have soothed our consciences by occasionally attending a bench of magistrates, granting a summons or a license, sitting on a grand jury. But as to meeting the social dangers of the times by carefully getting up subjects, constant reading, deep study, writing and public speaking, cultivating our powers and exerting all our strength-this we have left undone. We have not yet sprung into our true position, nor struck out boldly into public life. Be the past as it may with regard to ourselves, this is certain, we must bring up our children to recognize and accept their position as a post of labour and high responsibility; they will have to account not only for their private acts and omissions, but for their omission also of public acts and duties. Under a despotic government the despot may alone be accountable to God for the general state of society. But in a country governed as ours is the responsibility will be charged not upon the Queen and her Ministers, but upon all men who, being born to a position, did not use it; who holding power or the means of acquiring it, did not wield it; because they cared not to use their heads and their brains, or to forego their pleasures and convenience. If the Catholics of the generation which is past held a responsible position, we hold one yet more responsible; *It is but just to say that several of our M.P.'s during the last thirty-five years have done themselves all credit, and proved what Catholics may do by devotedness, honesty, and public spirit. |