young men is entrusted, and obviously, without superadding the anxieties and labours of authorship, they have enough to do, for beside teaching, their business is to advise and admonish their pupils, to give them, on every subject, and in all the little details affecting their interests, the benefits of counsel and prudence; and indeed any of that numerous body of students wanting advice or information, or any of the offices of friendship, may calculate upon the interest, sympathy, or when they are necessary, the active aid and assistance of his College tutor;-but besides these matters, the Junior Fellows have to sustain the weight of troublesome situations, such as Junior Dean, Junior Proctor, and of divers scholastic exercises, professorships and lectureships; of these many may be known by reference to the common Almanack, but perhaps something of the detail of a Tutor's Occupation may convey this knowledge more completely to our readers. For this purpose, we state, on the authority of one of the Fellows, that the Lectures of a day alone, have often employed him during Term, above seven hours, thus: morning Lecture at 6, Greek at 9, Lectures to Pupils, from 11 to 2 o'clock, and for these, a preparation of above two hours. He has often written in a day a dozen letters to the Students, besides answering the inquiries of his pupils and their friends. It is not rare too, for a Fellow to attend chapel in the year, above 200 times, and the labour of Examining may be guessed, when it is known that of Quarterly Examinations, there are 32 days in the year, and of Entrance 12, if Sizarship be included, not to speak of Catechetical, nor of Scholarship and Fellowship Examinations, which belong to the Senior Fellows.

Such then being the necessary occupations of a Tutor, the remark is not unaccountable of one, whose learning and labour yet, were said to be "of other centuries, when there were giants in the land," that after a day spent in the harassing duties of tuition, he found during the evening, amusement and renovation even in the most abstract studies, nor is it a wonder that the author of a valuable treatise on Mechanics, lately published should state in his preface, that " for the year during which he composed the work, he was engaged from 7 to 8 hours daily, in academical duties."

Is it not then unfair to compare this with more favoured establishments, and an University thus constituted, having but 26 permanent members, actively employed and overmatched with duty, with these of England, in which jointly are near 800 Fellows free from the task of Tuition, and enjoying every literary advantage in the way of opportunity and incitement! and is it not vain to expect many literary productions of value, so long as the arrangements of the University require that all its higher members should be devoted to collegiate instruction, or government and management. None can indeed deny that pre-eminent talent and industry may vanquish such these or greater difficulties, and here they have done so in many splendid instances; but the majority of a literary corporation will never possess commanding energy and natural endowment, and therefore, in the main, the Fellows, though men of high qualification and attainment, must yield to the necessity of their situation.

Is there then--it may naturally be asked-no remedy?—None plainly unless it be the establishment of some situation connected with the University, free from the cure of souls, or the duties of tuition. Retirements of this description would afford opportunity of mental advancement to men, who seem able and willing to exert themselves creditably-and if leisure alone, be not a suflicient security for the honest employment of time and

its successful application, it may be aided and guarded by other principles, such for instance as that of selection among the Fellows, in respect of zeal and competency, and perhaps of obligation, imposed on the retiring Fellow, to present at stated intervals to the public the result of his

labours.

From ten to twenty of such situations would probably in a time incredibly short, raise Dublin College in point of authorship at least to the literary rank of either English University, and would certainly insure a rapid increase to her fame and usefulness. As a seminary for instruction indeed, the Dublin University is perhaps unequalled, and in this respect it would not be easy to raise her character.-Pensioners have during their Undergraduate service, to attend eleven quarterly examinations, and Fellow Commoners nine, and at each of these, sound information, such at least as may be expected from common talent and common industry, is indispensibly required-nor have these wholesome regulations been unproductive of valuable effect, and it is not prejudice to assert that the average rate of learning, secured to her pupils by our University, and witnessed by her degrees, declines not a severe comparison, with the Collegiate acquirement of the great body of English students. Of this the nation seem to entertain some general impression of acknowledgment, and indeed every part of the country participates in the benefit and the obligation, for every parish sends up in turn its students, from the mass of which gradually spring up Senators, Preachers, Pleaders, the learned and professional men of the kingdom, or-characters equally important-its educated country gentlemen-it is thus, that the circulation of useful knowledge proceeding from the University, like the circulation of the blood, renders assistance to every member of the nation, however minute and however remote, and like it too, though so useful and so necessary to the body politic, it is in a great degree insensible. In fact information conveyed viva voce can never be definitely or precisely known; all can indeed witness improvement in the lads who have received the benefit of Collegiate education, but improvement is not a thing capable of exact appreciation or measurement, and as its phenomena are complicated and (not immediate or absolute but) relative and successive, it can only be nearly ascertained by great memory and observation and judgment.-It may however with much probability be guessed that the instruction of able men, their fair comparisons of merit, and distribution of reward or punishment, must almost insure great general improvement-cases of exception will no doubt arise when opportunities are neglected, and time and talent are misapplied,-yet even to the inert and idle, the very exercise of ingloriously walking over the College course is salutary. If then it be asked of what use to the generality in the practice of life, is an education in Dublin College.— The answer is easy, that by all good education the manners are polished, and tempers are humanised, and a sound and delicate perception is imparted to the taste, and the whole mind acquires vigor and beauty; but specially in this University the mass of students will be sure to learn habits of diligence and discipline,--they will learn how to read books, and how to extract from them what is important, and how to communicate the information thus acquired, --and if nature has presented them with a good understanding, how valuable in guiding and stimulating their future exertions, may be the spur and confidence derived from fair trials of skill and laudable emulation. These advantages being quite independent of the informa

tion actually imparted by the books which form the subject of undergraduate study and examination, will in some measure afford an answer to the trite objection of ignorance, that scientific and classical acquirement are useless in life, as we neither work problems, or talk Greek and Latin,—at the same time, the information more directly proceeding from College studies is not to be dispised. Of this perhaps a simple reference to the list of books read in the University, may afford abundant testimony, however, for the advantage of all who are but little acquainted with such matters, we shall append a very brief outline of the Dublin system of instruction.

From Logics, and indeed in a degree from every science-the Student learns that, in spite of contradictory opinions and obstinate disputations, there is such a thing as truth, and how to find it he is taught the principles of all legitimate and all fallacious augmentation, the properties and affections of terms and propositions, how to define any term and how to divide any subject.-The human understanding itself is it as were laid open before him he sees all its faculties at work, all the materials and inlets of knowledge-the introduction of ideas, by external and internal sensation,—their subsequent manufacture by divers natural powers comparing, compounding, generalising, naming them; by the latter operation which belongs to the more general head of associating ideas, language is constructed, and when its abuses and imperfections are discovered-is amended-finally the certainty, evidence and extent of knowledge, is exhibited, and an accurate estimate laid before him of the degrees of probability and the ground of opinion.

In mathematics, he lays the foundation of the whole structure of science, and proceeds by infallible steps, from principles unquestionable and selfevident, to the abstrusest properties and most beautiful and most perplexed relation of number and figure. Illumined next by the revelation of Astronomy, he looks with wonder on the face of the heavens, learns how to make observations, and what discoveries have disclosed themselves to preceding observers, for instance, the daily and annual motions of the earth, its figure and magnitude; the propositions of chief advantage to the geographer, the traveller, and the navigator; the rotations and revolutions of all the planets; the chief phenomena of the Solar system and their irregularities, with the causes of them,-he marks the arrangement of all the luminous bodies, measures the distances and magnitude of the planets, discovers the laws which govern them, and the motives which either result from these laws, or are impressed by the arm of Omnipotence,

In natural philosophy, he investigates all the forces existing, whether the productions of nature or of art, and connects them with the phenomena, and thus explains or anticipates all the mutual effects and operations of bodies-he is taught the true mode of philosophising; the laws of motion. and of equilibrium; the nature, properties and mechanic management of fluids, such as air, water, light; the phenomena of sound and vision; the various mechanic powers and instruments, by which all his organs and powers are magnified; and the principles of those inventions, or applications, which exercise so much influence on our lives and comforts, which have indeed changed the whole face of human affairs, our lives, habits, opinions, manners, customs, and the form of the literary, military, political, domestic, and commercial world. From Ethics, he learns the principles of natural Law or Religion, all the rights and obligations belonging to man, either absolutely as a rational animal, or as related to God, and to the

members of political society.-He ascertains the extent to which reason can go, when comparatively unassisted and when illumined by revelation. The evidences of the Christian Religion are laid before him, and the analogy shown which exists between the principles of natural or of revealed Religion, and the constitution and whole course of nature.

Nor is this University inattentive to classical literature-its Students have the opportunity, and the necessity of studying the most finished models of ancient composition, of becoming critically acquainted with the literati of brighter days, and of exploring all the classic treasures of philosophy, poetry, history and oratory.

The best classical scholar in each class is after a severe examination, rewarded with a gold medal; the same encouragement is given to Scienceand how laborious a preparation is required for the latter, may be learned from the Dublin problems, and a comparison may be instituted between them, and the questions proposed by the most scientific of the English Universities to her favorite Students, the candidates for Wranglerships and other Graduate honors.

Such is the course of education in the University of Dublin.-Such are the labors of its leading members, and is it reasonable to expect, that to all their necessary employments, the labors of authorship shall be superadded? It may be said, that they know but little of the duties of an instructor, and can badly enter into the feelings of an author who entertain such an expectation. The man who hopes to produce a work such as may prove a lasting benefit to the world, must be in a great measure disengaged from the ordinary cares of life, much more from the perpetual and annoying recurrence of those anxieties by which a consciencious tutor is embarrassed. Let the University of Dublin have the power of granting that desirable tranquility which literature loves, and to say that it will make a judicious and honorable use of its power, is only to express the inference which may be fairly drawn from what it has already done; for passing from its intellectual to its moral character, it is probable that no public body or individual, ever yet exercised privileges and dispensed patronage more equitably than that University. Indeed the term "patronage" appears peculiarly ill adaped to designate the system, according to which, the University of Dublin distributes its benefits and rewards. No man in that institution hopes to attain honor or emolument by any indirect proceeding-By his own merit and his own open honest exertions he hopes to win for himself distinction, and what his own efforts are insufficient to atchieve, he despairs of attaining by any less honorable mode of advancement.

Among the various characteristics by which the University of Dublin has been described, it is remarkable that its inflexible justice has not been noticed as it deserved. That an individual shall be of unsullied integrity in the transactions of life, is perhaps not so rare as desponding spirits are ready to believe; but that a corporation consisting of men subject to all the frailties of nature, and liable to those influences which cause men so frequently to swerve from strict impartiality, shall conduct themselves with the purity which characterises the proceedings of the Senior and Junior Fellows of Dublin College, is a circumstance worthy of remark, and it appears somewhat extraordinary, that such a circumstance should not have been noticed as it deserved. But the truth is, that the justice, which is so valuable an attribute of the corporation of our University, has not been especially noticed, because it has not been interrupted. If instances frequently occurred

by which suspicion was cast upon their proceedings, public attention would be directed towards the subject, and the unfrequent deviations from strict propriety, would make the general impartiality become known and appreciated; but now, a man is no more sensible of this, than he is of atmospheric pressure, for this reason, that justice may in some sort be considered as the pure element which pervades the Collegiate institutions, and sustains as it were, the principle of Academic life. The effect of this atmosphere upon the character of Students cannot but prove extremely beneficial. A young man at his entrance into College, feels as if the laws of the University were general and constant as those of nature. If he be greedy of praise, he comprehends that honors are distributed according to principles, incapable of change, and that they are to be won, as the gifts of nature, by ability and application. If he be so circumstanced as to desire College emolument, he is taught that this is not the reward of servility or adulation, that it is not the meed of those who can claim the private friendship of the men by whom the University is administered, but that habits of diligence and correctness are sure to procure friends for the stranger, and that talents and industry invariably obtain as a right, the advantages which he who relied upon personal and private regards would aspire after in vain.

The fellowship examination may be considered as calculated at the same time to illustrate and to sustain the spirit of justice on which the University of Dublin may boast itself. A station is contended for, not less honorable perhaps than any to which a man may be called, and the qualifications of Candidates are investigated under the public eye, and the judgment of the Examiners is thus submitted to the censorship of the learned men of the nation. Men admitted after such a scrutiny, naturally proud of a station to which they have been so honorably raised, will not in their conduct, violate engagements to the observance of which on the part of others, they are themselves indebted. They in their turn become impartia! examiners, and thus through all the grades of Academic life a spirit is diffused and recognized under the influence of which, habits of independance and moral elevation, and virtuous industry are sure to flourish, and the ascendancy of mental worth above all adventitious distinctions fully established. Hence the vigor of the principle which animates the discipline of the Dublin University, and hence the power with which members of its body break through the encumbrances which surround them, and encrease their reputation in the world. But let these incumbrances be removed, and give to the energies of a fine institution a wider sphere, and the appellation "silent sister" will soon be forgotten, or remembered only as a title which ingenious commentators may perhaps explain as having ever been employed to designate the University of Dublin,