28 DUBLIN UNIVEBSITY 



man ; but I doubt if we have any right now thus to appropriate him to 

 ourselves. He has become public property — he is the property of the 

 empire, and the fame which he has attained is now an integral portion 

 of the glory which surrounds the imperial crown of Great Britain. I 

 wish, indeed, the time were come when the distinction between Engliah 

 and Irish could be forgotten, and when every subject of her Majesty 

 might be regarded, without reference to the place of his birth, as enti- 

 tled to such promotion as his merit may deserve ; but that time, unfor- 

 tunately, has not come. The icy barrier of prejudice that once separated 

 us even more than it does now has indeed given symptoms of breaking 

 up, and the deeds of such men as M'Clintock are doing more, perhaps, 

 to undermine it than any abstract consideration of justice or injustice. 

 The competitive examination system also has shown the world what 

 Irish lads can do when they get fair play. That icy barrier in former 

 days rendered it very difficult for an Irishman, however deserving, to 

 get promotion even in his own country, and impossible in England ; but 

 now that that barrier is giving way, it is generally acknowledged 

 that there ought to be reciprocity, although in many departments, both 

 of Church and State, the reciprocity is still, unfortunately, all on one 

 side. I do not say this in any bigoted spirit of nationality ; but I con- 

 fess to this weakness, that I cannot help indulging some feeling of pride 

 when I hear the sound of that Celtic patronymic, which adorns the 

 names of more than one of our successful Arctic navigators. It seems 

 an evidence that the spirit of enterprise which was so remarkable a 

 characteristic of our remote ancestors, still forms an ingredient in our 

 modern Celtic blood. The spirit of enterprise and adventure led the 

 ancient Irish ecclesiastics to carry the sound of the Gospel into the 

 most distant regions — to penetrate the dark forests of Caledonia, and 

 compel the barbarous and savage Picts to do homage to Christ That 

 love of adventure, sanctified by a nobler motive, led them also to the 

 land of the then no less barbarous Saxons, in order to win them from the 

 blood-stained rites of Thor and Woden, to the worship of the one true 

 God. That spirit of adventure led them also to many parts of Europe — 

 to the forests of Germany, to Gaul and Switzerland, to the recesses of 

 the Alps — where they founded seminaries of learning, and monasteries 

 of religion, many of which still exist, and still bear testimony to their 

 Irish origin ; and in the libraries of many of them manuscripts with 

 Irish glosses are still to be found, which long lay dormant like seed in the 



