Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 1.djvu/58

lii INTRODUCTION. existence. No such books are now extant, nor are they known to have existed within the memory of any person now living. The late Yice-Provost, Dr. Barrett, was of opinion that they were destroyed, or made away with, by Provost Eichard Baldwin, in order to put a final stop to the agitation about Forbes, and the constant motions made in the Senate to have the Books of the University produced. Baldwin was indeed an arbitrary man, and a determined Whig (in the old, not in the present modern sense of the word) ; political feeling at the time ran very high, owing to the rebellion in Scotland, in favour of the Pretender in 1 7 1 5. It was quite in accordance with the character of the man, that finding a trouble- some party in the University, acting with the enemies of the constitution, he should endeavour by every means to crush them. We hear no more of Edward Forbes.^ After his expulsion he seems to have taken no part in the attempts made to procure the reversal of his sentence. The House of Commons and the Government lost no time in showing their strong feelings against him, and alarmed by such opposition he probably found it neces- sary to quit the country. One good came out of the evil. The House of Commons, to mark their approbation of the conduct of the College, and the steady adherence of its members to " the late happy revolution," voted an address to the Queen, asking for a grant of money to assist in erecting a pubKc Library in the College, according to the beautiful plan of Sir William Chambers. We find the follow- ing minute in the Commons' Journals,^ scarcely a year after the expulsion of Forbes : — University, and of Incorporation into appears that there were then separate the College of such as are sent thence Registers, for the College and for the to the school, lod." Again, under University. the date of March 18, 1 689, we have " In the old Senior Lecturer's Book, this order : — " Decretum est a Prae- his entrance is not recorded. He posito et Sociis Senioribus ut haec probably came originally from a censura publicis CoUegii foribus affi- Scotch University. gatur, et in registrum tam Academic >' Quoted also in University Ca- quam Collegii referatur." Hence it lendar for 1869 (Benefactors, p. 317).