§ MR. O'DONNELLasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If his attention has been called to the fact that at the late degree examinations in connection with the Royal University of Ireland the total number of graduates in arts from Queen's College, Galway, was only nine, and the total number from Queen's College, Cork, was only twelve; whether the Government intend to continue the grant of £20,000 a-year to the support of institutions which only produce twenty-one graduates in arts this year; and, whether he will propose any measure for making the public endowments of the Colleges at Cork and Galway more useful in extending University education among the people of Ireland?
§ MR. TREVELYANSir, my attention has been called to this matter by the Question of the hon. Member; but I have already given much interest and attention to the matter. The Government have no present intention other than to continue the annual grants to those institutions; but I think it right to point out that the number of graduates in Arts from those Colleges forms no estimate of the number of students who receive Arts instruction in the Colleges. Thus, the number of students in the Faculty of Arts during the last session in the Queen's College, Galway, 1184 was 57; but the Arts education was not limited to them, but was given to the 205 students who were attending lectures. It must be remembered that the number of students in Arts is an altogether inadequate test of the work of these institutions. The students in Arts number little more than a fourth in Galway, and little more than a sixth at Cork, of the whole body of students. The Queen's Colleges are, to a marked extent, places of scientific education.