The honour was gratefully accepted.

1 Whitehall Gardens: Friday Morning.

My dear Lord Derby,-On my return from the House last night I found your letter.

The honorary distinction intended for me is doubly enhanced by the generous and kind partiality in which your lordship's intention has been conveyed to me.

Such a connection with the University of Oxford cannot but be very gratifying to myself, and I know that my constituents of the University of Dublin will recognise the compliment as more than personal to their representative in Parliament.

The additional connection with your lordship as Chancellor of the University of Oxford I most fully appreciate. For whilst my official career has been sealed with your truly gratifying approval, confirmed by the testimony of the best and noblest Viceroy that ever governed Ireland, and the personal friendship which I have for some years enjoyed has always been valued as an honour and a privilege, the Academic bond has its peculiar attractions. Nothing, then, can be wanting, whether in past associations, present convictions, or future prospects, to bind us indissolubly in the obligations of an unflinching advocacy of the great principles of truth and freedom, which are nurtured by the institutions of our country, which never seek to separate the civil and social duties to our neighbour from the greater and more solemn responsibilities which as a nation and individually we would discharge to the gracious Giver of all good. With very kind and grateful regards,

I am, my dear Lord,

Your obliged and faithful

JOSEPH NAPIER.

CHAPTER IV.

THE TURNING OF THE TIDE.

You had that action and counteraction which, in the natural and in the political world, from the reciprocal struggle of discordant powers draws out the harmony of the universe.-EDMUND BURKE, Reflections on the Revolution in France.

Le gouvernement d'Angleterre est plus sage parce qu'il y a un corps qui l'examine continuellement, et qui s'examine continuellement luimême et telles sont ses erreurs, qu'elles ne sont jamais longues, et que par l'esprit d'attention qu'elles donnent à la nation, elles sont souvent utiles.-MONTESQUIEU, Grandeur et Décadence des Romains, chap. viii.

DURING the agitated session of 1854, when, thanks to the vacillating policy of Lord Aberdeen, we drifted into war with Russia, Napier took no part in the frequent debates which arose as to the conduct of hostilities in the Crimea. It was characteristic of the man throughout his whole parliamentary life never to speak upon any subject with which he was not thoroughly familiar, and to which he could not add special information. Therefore throughout the mismanagement of our affairs in the Crimea he was silent, wisely leaving to the military critics and the leaders of the Opposition, the duty of condemning the short

comings of the Government. He was a lawyer and not a soldier, and it did not fall within his province to pass judgment upon the blunders, which from the want of foresight on the part of the home authorities crippled the progress of the campaign; such criticism, he rightly thought, could be better left to those whose political position or technical knowledge justified the interference. Upon the few matters of domestic interest which arose during the session, he was, however, not silent. He supported the proposal, again brought forward and again withdrawn, of his brotherin-law, Mr. Whiteside, to inquire into the state of Roman Catholic nunneries, and to secure to persons under religious vows the free exercise of their rights in the disposal of property. It was not right, he urged, that the conventual establishments throughout the country should be independent of the common law of the land, should make their own special laws, and should be subject to the ruling of a foreign power.

Was it not right to consider, then (he said), whether some substitute for the law which had thus been contravened could not be found? If no remedy could be suggested, it would be far better to do away altogether with any enactments which they could not enforce; but, before they could come to that conclusion, it was their plain duty to consider the subject fully, with the best advice they could get. All that was asked for was inquiry, and there was no necessity for conducting it in such a

way as would wound the most sensitive mind. He was the last to wish to invade the territory of conscience or to intrude upon domestic privacy, but he was anxious that the House should consider whether something might not be done to give the inmates of these conventual institutions at least a periodical opportunity of declaring whether they were there of their own free will. He would submit to Irish members themselves whether it would not be wise to consent to this inquiry, instead of going into a debate which might give rise to a display of temper and angry feeling. There was no wish to go. further than was really necessary to maintain the authority of our law; but as far as he was concerned, he would stand up firmly for the independence of the laws of this country against any foreign power whatever, and for giving to every subject of this realm the full and free protection to which he was entitled. The necessity of some law to prevent property from being taken away from families, and absorbed in these institutions, was admitted by many of the most intelligent and influential even of the Roman Catholics themselves.

The next subject which attracted the attention of Napier was one which always had a special interest for him the question of legal education. He was strongly in favour of those reforms which have since been introduced into our Inns of Court the substitution of a satisfactory test of fitness for admission to the bar, instead of the custom that formerly prevailed of merely eating dinners and keeping terms. Napier even went a step further, being desirous of establishing a special school in connection with the Inns of Court, for the education of future barristers, and the

founding of chairs in the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, to teach principles of mental and moral philosophy, civil law, and general jurisprudence. He had himself, when reading for the bar, felt the want of such special educational advantages, and on this occasion indulged in the following reminiscence.

I will now mention (he said) what I found the state of education at the time I was called to the bar. I remember well having to ask experienced friends what course of reading they recommended a student to follow when he came to London for the purpose of eating a certain number of dinners. The mere dining was all that was required, and the opportunity thus afforded of learning anything was over a bottle of wine. Having an experienced friend, however, who had once practised at the Irish bar, I asked him, in my simplicity, what course of study he would recommend me to take up. The answer was, 'If you are going to the Irish bar, the best thing you can study is Joe Miller. My friend also told me that, in his early days, he had read the best books, but he got no business, and he soon found that those who cracked the best jokes made the most money and carried off business at that time. I cannot say that I took the advice given to me, but it so happened that the London University was just opened, and Mr. Amos delivered a course of lectures, which I attended in order to see whether I could learn anything from them. All the instruction I had received while in London was from these excellent lectures and from Sir John Patteson, to whose chambers I went as a pupil, and whose friendship I am proud of to the present day.

When the Protestant character of Dublin Univer