the British government. It was forced upon the parliament by the Irish
agitators. In a debate on this act in the House of Lords, the Marquess
of Lansdowne, who had evicted a large number of tenants from his
estates, admitted that he and other landlords accepted the proposition
with great reluctance, and "only because the government had represented
to them very earnestly, indeed, that the measure formed an integral part
of a policy of pacification which they desired to bring about in
Ireland, and if the landlords took the responsibility of rejecting this
particular item, the entire programme was destined to failure. It is on
the strength of these representations," said the Marquess of Lansdowne,
"that we ask the House of Lords to agree to the restoration of all Irish
tenants who have been evicted at any time for political reasons as well
as for failure to pay their rents."
The members of the National Party in Ireland concede this point
cheerfully. They willingly admit that they insisted upon the restoration
of all evicted tenants as the first and the most important proposition
in the programme of pacification in Ireland, and they agreed with the
Marquess of Lansdowne that it would have been a failure otherwise. It
should also be stated that all arrears of rent for which families have
been evicted from Irish farms have been cancelled, and the restored
tenants have become the actual owners of the land, the houses, and all
improvements. Instead of paying rent to a landlord, they become the
landlords themselves. The purchase money in every case has been advanced
by the government, and is to be repaid by the purchaser in sixty-eight
years with interest at three and one quarter per cent per annum. This
sum represents two and one-half per cent interest upon bonds issued to
raise the funds and three-fourths of one per cent for a sinking fund to
meet the bonds at maturity.
X
MAYNOOTH COLLEGE AND CARTON HOUSE
Two-thirds and perhaps as many as three-fourths of the Roman Catholic
priests in Ireland were educated at the College of Maynooth, which turns
out one hundred and fifty or more earnest, zealous, able young clergymen
every year, and is the most conspicuous and influential educational
institution in Ireland. Comparatively few of the graduates go to the
United States. Dr. Hogan, professor of modern languages and literature,
explained that nearly all of the Irish priests who emigrated to America
were educated at the missionary college of All Hallows, near Dublin, for
the United States was until recently counted as a mission field by the
holy see and was under the jurisdiction of the prefect of the propaganda
of the holy faith at Rome. There are quite a number of Maynooth
graduates in America, and during the recent visit of Cardinal Logue they
gave a dinner in his honor in New York.
Dr. Hogan took us through the buildings, which are spacious and surround
two large quadrangles. They are built of stone, four stories in height,
are entirely modern and fitted up with all the conveniences and
accessories that belong to an up-to-date institution of learning. The
chapel is also modern, built within the present generation and entirely
conventional. It is not large enough to accommodate all of the students,
and the underclass men attend mass elsewhere.
Beyond the second quadrangle is a campus of seventy acres of lawn and
garden and grove, where five hundred young men were engaged in taking
their daily supply of fresh air and exercise when we passed through the
archway. Almost every kind of game was going on, from croquet to
football. There were several cricket contests in progress; others were
playing at hockey and basketball; others were on the track running, and
the lazy ones were lying stretched out on the velvet grass. There are
now five hundred and sixty-two students, nearly all of them theologs,
and one hundred and twenty graduated in 1908. They come chiefly from
Ireland, a few from Irish families in England, a few more from
Australia, but at present there is no representative of the United
States. When I asked a group of young men how they got along without any
Americans, one of them illustrated the quick wit of his race by replying
promptly: "We hope never to have them here, sir; they are altogether too
smart for us. If they keep on, the Americans will run the world."
It costs very little to get an education at Maynooth. The fees are
small,--$20 for matriculation, $25 for tuition, $150 a year for board,
and other small fees for electric light, rent of furniture, etc., which
brings the total up to about $225 a year. There are two hundred and
seventy scholarships which have been founded by friends of the
institution and societies in the different parishes, and they pay an
average of $150 a year. There is a fine library with forty thousand
volumes, and a gymnasium and everything else that is needed.
The ancient castle of Maynooth, built by the Earl of Kildare in 1427,
stands at the gateway of the college, and occupies the site of the
original stronghold of the family, built in 1176 by the first Maurice
Fitzgerald, who came over with the Strongbow at the time of the
Conquest. It has been a ruin since 1647, and a beautiful ruin it is--one
of the largest and most picturesque in the kingdom.
[Illustration: MAYNOOTH COLLEGE COUNTY KILDARE]
Until 1895, when the centenary of Maynooth College was celebrated, six
thousand priests and prelates of Irish birth had been educated within
the walls of that "mother of love, and of fear and of knowledge, and of
holy hope," as her alumni call her. And now the number exceeds
seventy-five hundred. Most of them have been, and those now living are
still, doing pastoral work in Ireland, and nearly two thousand of the
alumni have gone abroad into the United States, England, Scotland,
Australia, South Africa, and other English-speaking countries. During
the first three-quarters of the eighteenth century and for several
hundred years before Catholic education was prohibited in Ireland, but
it was not possible for the British authorities to prevent young men
from crossing the sea, and during the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries a number of Irish colleges were founded in the Peninsula, in
France, and in Flanders, and there most of the Irish priests of that
long period received their education. It has been often asserted that
the Catholic faith might have disappeared in Ireland but for the ardent
piety and ambition of these young students, who found the preparation
they needed for parish work from the Irish faculties of divinity schools
on the Continent. In 1795, at the time Maynooth College was founded,
about four hundred young Irishmen were attending such institutions, and
in 1808 a printed report names twelve colleges with four hundred and
seventy-eight Irish students.
Most of these institutions were in France, and they were closed and
desecrated by the French Revolution, which expelled their inmates,
profaned their altars, and confiscated their possessions. The Irish
bishops, in consequence, found themselves confronted with an alarming
situation. The foreign supply of priests was entirely cut off and the
laws of Parliament prohibited their education at home. In this extremity
they applied to the government, asking permission to found seminaries
for educating young men to discharge the duties of Roman Catholic
clergymen in the kingdom. William Pitt, then prime minister, was
persuaded that it was safer for England to grant this request than to
permit the young priests to imbibe the hatred of England and the
democratic and revolutionary principles that pervaded society on the
Continent. Edmund Burke and Earl Fitzwilliam acted in behalf of the
bishops, and the latter was instructed by the prime minister to
supervise the establishment of a new institution. Dr. Hussey,
confidential agent of the English government in Dublin, was appointed
the first president. He is described as a scholar, statesman,
diplomatist, and orator; he had a checkered and eventful career; he
undertook many things and excelled in them all. He was a fellow of the
Royal Society, a preacher of remarkable power, and the intimate friend
of such statesmen as Edmund Burke. He had the confidence of William Pitt
and was the trusted agent of princes and statesmen. He was a native of
County Meath, was educated at the ancient University of Salamanca of
Spain, and originally entered a Trappist monastery, but left it shortly
after and became chaplain of the Spanish embassy in London. The British
government, recognizing his ability and integrity, sent Dr. Hussey on
two confidential missions to the court of Spain, and rewarded his
success by granting him a liberal pension for life and appointing him as
confidential agent of the government in its negotiations with the
bishops, and afterward to be president of the first Catholic theological
seminary in Ireland. After two years at the head of the institution he
was appointed bishop of Waterford, where he remained until his death in
1803.
Instruction was commenced in a private house belonging to an agent of
the Duke of Leinster. The foundations of a new building were laid on the
20th of April, 1796, and seven months later it was opened with fifty
students on the roll. The Duke of Leinster, although a Protestant,
anxious to have the college on his estate, made very liberal terms, and
successive generations of the house of Kildare, of which he is the
representative, have been not only friendly but generous to the
institution.
Everything about the college reminds the student of the famous class of
Geraldines. The ancient castle of the Kildares, built by Maurice
Fitzgerald the Invader, and enlarged by John, the sixth earl, in the
year 1426, stands at the gate, and on either side of the main walk are
fine old yew-trees planted more than seven hundred years ago. According
to local legends that vain and reckless youth, "Silken Thomas," sat
beneath its spreading branches and played his harp three hundred and
seventy-five years ago, on the evening before he started for Dublin to
relinquish his trust as temporary viceroy and assault the castle. His
five uncles were hanged at Tyburn mainly because they were Catholics.
At the fall of the house the sole surviving heir was saved by his tutor,
a Catholic priest, who afterward became Bishop of Kildare. Several
generations later the earls of Kildare and the dukes of Leinster became
Protestants, but they always advocated the emancipation of their
Catholic fellow-countrymen, and have always been fair and honorable in
their dealings with the institution.
It was a difficult task to get a faculty in those days, as there had not
been a Catholic college in Ireland for centuries. But the French
Revolution had cast upon the shores of Ireland many competent exiles,
who were placed in charge of the various departments, and among the
clergy of Ireland were found a sufficient number of scholars to complete
the staff of instructors. The Revolution of 1798 broke out two years
after the college was opened, and many of the students were stirred by
aspirations which caused their expulsion. It was a test that many felt
to be very severe; but the faculty were determined to keep faith with
the government, and sixteen students were expelled. In 1803, the year of
Emmet's insurrection, there was a good deal of insubordination, which
has been described as a "ground swell from the outside agitation." Six
students were expelled, one of whom, Michael Collins, afterward became
Bishop of Cloyne.
The original grant of Parliament was $40,000 a year. In 1807 this was
increased to $65,000, which was expended in buildings. It was afterwards
reduced, and until 1840 was about $50,000. At that time there were four
hundred students, who could not be properly accommodated. In 1844 the
trustees drew up and forwarded to the government a strong memorial,
which was read in the House of Commons by Sir Robert Peel, who declared
that such a state of things was discreditable to the nation and that
Parliament should either cut Maynooth College adrift altogether, or
maintain it in a manner worthy of the state. In the face of resolute
opposition of a majority of his own party, he carried through a proposal
to give the sum of $30,000 for new buildings and an annual grant of
$26,360 for the maintenance of the college. Mr. Gladstone supported the
prime minister, Mr. Disraeli, then leader of the opposition, attacking
the bill fiercely. Thomas Babington Macaulay and Dr. Whately, the
rhetorician, both made eloquent and convincing speeches in its support.
In 1869, when the bill to dissolve the relations between the Protestant
church in Ireland and the government was passed, Mr. Gladstone, then
prime minister, was compelled to treat Maynooth College on the same
terms that he gave the Irish Episcopal branch of the Established Church,
and the Presbyterian, giving each a sum of money equal to fourteen
installments of its annual grants.
The interest upon that sum at three and one-half per cent is not
sufficient for the proper support of so large an institution, but the
college has had many generous friends, and with economy has been able
not only to maintain itself but to strengthen its position, enlarge its
facilities, and give its students better accommodations and greater
advantages year by year. The several bishops of Ireland have raised
funds to endow many scholarships, so that the expenses incidental to
student life have been very much reduced for those who are unable to pay
the full fee. Nevertheless, there is great anxiety among the trustees
and the professors to extend the buildings, add several chairs to the
faculty, and obtain more endowments.
Maynooth is the rendezvous of the Catholic hierarchy of Ireland, being
conveniently located and accessible to all the bishops. They meet here
frequently to discuss ecclesiastical matters and determine upon church
policies. His Eminence Cardinal Logue is president of the board of
trustees. His Grace the Most Rev. William J. Walsh, D.D., Archbishop of
Dublin, is vice-president. The Archbishop of Cashel, the Archbishop of
Tuam, and twelve bishops make up the board. The president of the college
is the Right Rev. Mgr. Mannix, D.D.; the vice-president is the Very Rev.
Thomas P. Gilmartin, D.D., and the deans of the different schools are
the Rev. Thomas T. Gilmartin, D.D., Rev. James Macginley, D.D., and the
Rev. Patrick Morrisroe.
Religion is a live thing in Ireland, and the Roman Catholic churches are
always filled to overflowing at every service with as many men as women,
which is unusual in other countries. In Ireland the situation seems to
be different, and the congregations are invariably composed about
equally of the two sexes. The Church of Ireland is comparatively weak in
numbers, and has more houses of worship than it needs, having inherited
many of them from the confiscation edicts of the English kings.
Naturally they are not so well filled, but the Roman Catholics are
compelled to have three or four services every Sunday in order to
accommodate the worshipers, and the priest is invariably the most
influential man in the parish. He enters directly into the life of his
parishioners, the parish boundaries are sharply divided, and his
jurisdiction is so well defined that he knows all the sheep and all the
goats that belong to his flock, over whom he exercises a parental as
well as a spiritual care. They come to him in all their troubles and in
their joys. He advises them about social, political, commercial,
domestic, and personal as well as spiritual affairs, and is the court of
highest resort in all disputes and family matters. No other authority
reaches so far or is rooted so deep in the community, and this peculiar
relation grows closer with years.
I formed a high opinion of the Irish priesthood from the examples I was
able to meet and to know. They impressed me as an unusually high class
of men intellectually as well as spiritually, and every one must admire
their devotion, their sincerity, and their self-sacrifice. Some of them
naturally become dictatorial, for it is often necessary for them to
assume an air of authority to preserve discipline in their parishes, but
I think that is more or less the rule in other countries and in all
denominations. You cannot talk back to a judge or a school-teacher or a
parson. And that is undoubtedly the ground for the charge so frequently
made that Ireland is "priest ridden." But the average of intelligence,
culture, and efficiency among the Irish priesthood is probably higher
than it is in any other country, and their influence is correspondingly
greater. There is a great deal of criticism in certain quarters about
the activity of the Irish priests in politics and that I found to be
largely a misrepresentation. Many of the priests do take an active part
in political affairs, but it is entirely a matter of individual taste
and inclination, and the proportion is probably no larger than it is
among ministers of all denominations in the United States. Those who are
well posted on this subject assured me that about one-third of the total
number of Catholic priests habitually interest themselves in political
affairs, local as well as national; a still larger number take an active
part in educational matters, and about one-half of them let politics
entirely alone. This is probably a fair estimate and will apply to the
clergy of the Church of Ireland and the nonconformist denominations with
equal accuracy, although they are much less numerous than the Roman
Catholic clergy.
It is always interesting to attend mass at a Roman Catholic church on
Sunday in Ireland, particularly in the smaller towns and country
parishes, where everybody except those who are too infirm to come out is
present in his best clothes, and, no matter how poor he may be, no one
passes the man who stands with a box at the entrance without dropping in
something, most of them only a penny or a halfpenny, but none without an
offering. The appearance of the people, and particularly the women, is
in striking contrast to that on week-days, and I am told that this
depends very largely upon the priests, many of whom insist that every
man, woman, and child shall have a suit of Sunday clothes and "wash up"
before coming to the house of God.
The Christian Brothers Educational Order of the Roman Catholic Church of
Ireland was organized in Waterford in 1802 by Edmund Rice, a wealthy
merchant who lamented the number of neglected boys he saw in the streets
and consulted Bishop Hussey, the first president of Maynooth College, as
to what he could do to rescue them. Mr. Rice sold his business and
opened a free school in his residence while a large building was being
erected for his use. The cornerstone was laid June 1, 1802. It was
finished the next year, was called Mount Zion, and is still in
operation, although very much enlarged. It has been the father house
and headquarters of the Irish Christian Brothers from the beginning.
Within a few years similar schools were opened in Dungarvan, Limerick,
Cork, Dublin, and later in every city and town in Ireland. In 1820 the
order was chartered by the Pope, and it has grown until there are now
more than one thousand brothers, all engaged in teaching day schools of
various standards, from primary instruction up to colleges. They have
technical and trade schools, commercial schools, orphanages, and schools
for the deaf and dumb and the blind all over the world, in Australia,
New Zealand, Africa, India, Gibraltar, and one house in New York. It is
independent of the American order of Christian Brothers, which was
founded in France in the seventeenth century by St. John Baptiste de la
Salle, a French abbé who was canonized by the Pope about four years ago.
In Ireland the Christian Brothers receive no grant from the government,
and all their primary schools are free. Tuition is charged at the
secondary and technical schools and the remainder of the support comes
from legacies, private and public contributions, collections in
churches, and other sources.
Edmund Rice died in 1844 at the age of eighty-two, and is buried in
Waterford cemetery, with this simple epitaph:
BROTHER EDWARD IGNATIUS RICE,
Founder of Christian Schools
In Ireland and England.
Carton House, the seat of the earls of Kildare, is on the opposite side
of Maynooth from the college. It is the present home of Maurice
Fitzgerald, Duke of Leinster, a young man who came of age in March,
1908. He carries more rank and titles than any other person in Ireland,
and has more money than any Irishman except Dublin's titled brewer. He
spends much of his time at Carton House, which looks like a Florentine
palace, but is completely modernized and fitted up with electric light,
telephones, and elevators, and stands upon an eminence in the center of
a park inclosed within eight miles of stone wall ten feet high. It is a
drive of three miles from his front gate to the threshold of his front
door, and there are more than thirty miles of macadamized roadway within
the demesne. There are hills and dales, twelve lakes, and four
waterfalls, one of them thirty-nine feet high. There is a garden of
sixty acres laid out in the French style, with fourteen or fifteen
fountains and many arbors, kiosks, and pergolas. There are meadows,
pastures, vegetable gardens, and fields of oats and other grain, but
three-fourths of the park is primeval forest, that has never heard the
sound of an axe, and most of the trees are as old as history. I am told
that no private park in the world surpasses the grounds of Carton House.
Among other curiosities is a cottage built entirely of shells, to
commemorate a visit of Queen Victoria, who describes her experiences in
"Leaves from Our Life," and tells of jaunting cars, Irish jigs, and
bagpipes. The shell cottage is now used as a museum to contain the
family relics.
The young duke has several other residences. One of them is Kilkea
Castle, County Kildare, which came into the family in the thirteenth
century, with ninety thousand acres of farm land, which has just been
sold to his tenants under the Wyndham Land Act for more than $6,000,000.
The Duke of Leinster has also disposed of his farming lands in the
neighborhood of Maynooth for more than $800,000. The estates commission,
which has the responsibility of carrying out the provisions of the land
act, has purchased more land from him than from any other landlord, and
he has received from them in payment nearly one-fourth of the entire
amount of money that has been paid under the act by the government. He
has a plain but spacious town house on Dominick Street, Dublin, and Mrs.
John W. Mackay now occupies his London residence, 6 Carlton House
Terrace, under a long lease. His wealth is estimated at $50,000,000. He
is unmarried, and has no attachments so far as known. His accumulation
of titles is even greater than his wealth. He is the sixth duke of
Leinster, which title dates from 1761, and was bestowed by Queen Anne;
he is the twenty-fifth earl of Kildare, which title dates from 1316; and
the thirty-first baron of Offlay, a title that has been in the family
since 1168. He is the premier duke, the premier marquis, the premier
earl, and the premier baron; the head of the Irish nobility. And all
this rank and responsibility is borne by a frail boy of twenty-one.
[Illustration: CARTON HOUSE, MAYNOOTH, COUNTY KILDARE; THE RESIDENCE OF
THE DUKE OF LEINSTER]