Mahafpy — The Post- Assaying on Dated Plate in T. C. D. 3o 



used. There was no such thing as laying apart any of these contributions 

 as things of sentimental value. Of this we have the clearest evidence. The 

 College plate, in the days when there were no banks, was the College money, 

 just as the jewels of Oriental grandees are said to represent their invest- 

 ments. Accordingly, when a crisis such as that of 1641 arose, and the 

 College could not recover its rents, the sale of parcels of plate is recorded 

 with stolid iteration. We know also that the only resisting force to this 

 clearing-out of the College property arose from Bishop Anthony Martin, 1 who 

 was then Provost, and to whom we probably owe the survival of our splendid 

 chapel plate, the best of which was already in the College. 



It may be said that this was a case of necessity, and that necessity often 

 plays havoc with sentiment. The answer is ready. The events I have just 

 cited took place in the years 1641-9. During the Cromwellian occupation, 

 indeed, there seems to have been a cessation of the habit or rule of the 

 College to require this tax at entrance. But with the Eestoration (1660) 

 the old practice revived; and between the years 1660-85 a great quantity of 

 plate again accrued to the College. With what seirtiment was it regarded ? 

 In 1685, under James II, the College, after some difficulties with the King 

 and his advisers, 2 carried through the proposal of selling 4000 ounces of 

 plate (excluding the plate used in the Chapel), in order to buy with it an 

 estate in the Queen's Co. Not only was this transaction completed, the 

 College receiving roughly £1000 for the silver, but there is extant a list 

 of the cups (about 140), tankards, and spoons, with the names of the 

 donors, which then were disposed of to a goldsmith. These names and gifts, 

 with hardly an exception, are from the previous twenty-five years. The 

 donors were, therefore, almost all alive, and must have known this public 

 transaction. Yet we do not hear of one word of protest or complaint. 

 Nay, even this did not prevent a new influx of plate commencing with 1600, 

 from which, and the following years, we have preserved many fine examples. 



Nor was the behaviour of the College in this matter peculiar, far less 

 solitary. We have examples both of public bodies, such as the Goldsmiths' 

 Corporation (in 1708), and of private individuals, such as Lord Mornington 

 (1759), 3 disposing of their plate, as we should use money deposited in a 

 savings bank. 



Dr. Stubbs, writing his History a generation ago, does not express one 



1 Cf. my Epuch of Irish History, p. 287. 



2 The story is given in detail by Dr. Stubbs in his History, pp. 125 sg. 



3 The College bought plate from him fm- £6(50. The Goldsmiths used theirs t" furnish 

 their new Hall, built at that time in Werburgh Street. 



[5 ■"] 



