Page:A Catalogue of Graduates who have Proceeded to Degrees in the University of Dublin, vol. 1.djvu/59

INTRODUCTION. Hii " Mercurii i die Junii, 1709, a motion being made that this House would become suitors to her Majesty to extend her royal bounty to the Provost, Fellows, and Scholars of Trinity College, near Dublin, to enable them to erect a Library in said College : — " Resolved, That this House — taking into consideration the proceedings of the University of Trinity College, near Dublin, in censuring Edward Forbes by degradation and expulsion for speaking dishonourably of, and aspersing the memory of his late Majesty King "William the Third ; and also the steady adherence of the Provost, Fellows, and Scholars of said College to the late happy Revolution, her present Majesty's Government, and the succession to the Throne as by law established, for the encouragement of good literature and sound Revolution principles — do address his Excellency the Lord Lieu- tenant that he will lay before her Majesty the humble desire of this House, that five thousand pounds be bestowed by her Majesty on the Provost, Fel- lows, and Scholars of Trinity College, near Dublin, for erecting a pubUc Library in said College." It is curious that this resolution was near causing a misunder- standing between the Lords and the Commons.* Dr. Miller, although he speaks of the Senior Master Non- Regent as "a mere fiction," gives us a curious instance of the ex- ercise of his veto, and of its influence upon the Vice- Chancellor. It was at the Summer Commencements of 1793. An Act of Par- liament had just been passed, enacting that from and after the first day of June, in that year, it shall not be necessary for any person, upon taking any Degree, to make or subscribe any de- claration, or to take any oath, save the oaths of allegiance and of abjuration ; and on the ist of March following, the King issued Letters Patent repealing anything in the Statutes of the College, or of the University, which stood in the way of Roman Catho- lics being admitted as students, or taking Degrees. The Vice- Chancellor'^ seems to have overlooked these provisions, and pro- ' See Rapin's Hist, of England, tutes of the College and of the Uni- edit. Tindall, vol. iv., p. 215. versity, as to enable them to enter •" It is a question whether the Vice- and take Degrees." But this was Chancellor was not right; for the not done until March i, 1794. The Act of Parliament had only relieved University, therefore, was not bound Roman Catholics, "in case his Majesty to omit the old oath, until the King shall be pleased so to alter the Sta- had altered the Statutes.