Irish University Bill. Had that bill succeeded, the Irish would have been for ten years in the enjoyment of a full option for both the languages.[1] From a careful perusal of the debates, I could not discover that the opposition ever fastened upon this bold surrender of the classical exclusiveness.
The proposal was facilitated by the existence of professors of French. and German in the Queen's colleges. In the English and Scotch colleges endowments are not as yet provided for these languages; although it would be easy enough to make provision for them in Oxford and Cambridge.
In favor of this alternative, it is urged that the classics, if entered on at all, should be entered on thoroughly and* entirely. The two languages and literatures form a coherent whole, an homogeneous discipline; and those that do not mean to follow this out should not begin it. Some of the upholders of classics take this view.
4. More thorough-going still is the scheme of complete bifurcation of the classical and the modern sides. In our great schools there has been instituted what is called the modern side, made up of sciences and modern languages, together with Latin. The understanding hitherto has been that the votaries of the ancient and classical side should alone proceed to the universities; the modern side being the introduction to commercial life, and to professions that dispense with a university degree. Here, as far as the schools are concerned, a fair scope is given to modern studies.
As was to be expected, the modern side is now demanding admission to the universities on its own terms; that is, to continue the same line of studies there, and to be crowned with the same distinctions as the classical side. This attempt to render school and college homogeneous throughout, to treat ancient studies and modern studies as of equal value in the eye of the law, will of course be resisted to the utmost. Yet it seems the only solution that can bring about a settlement that will last.
The defenders of the classical system in its extreme exclusiveness are fond of adducing examples of very illustrious men who at college showed an utter incapacity for science in its simplest elements. They say that by classics alone these men are what they are; and, if their way had been stopped by serious scientific requirements, they would have never come before the world at all. The allegation is somewhat strongly put; yet we shall assume it to be correct, on condition of being allowed to draw an inference. If some minds are so constituted for languages, and for classics in particular, may not there be other
- ↑ No doubt the classical languages would have been required, to some extent, in matriculating to enter college. This arrangement, however, as regarded the students that chose the modern languages, would have been found too burdensome by our Irish friends, and, on their expressing themselves to that effect, would have been soon dispensed with.
