§ MR. CORRYasked the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, If the Rev. Dr. Molloy, who has been appointed by His Excellency the Lord-Lieutenant to inquire into the working of the Queen's Colleges and the Royal University, is a salaried officer of the Royal University, receiving £400 a-year for examining, among others, the students of the Queen's Colleges and the College in which he is himself a Professor; and whether he has to investigate judicially the results of examinations in which he takes part, and in 540 which the students of his College compete with others; if he is aware that Dr. Molloy has, in published Letters, emphatically condemned the working of the Queen's Colleges, and that he has petitioned the Prime Minister to have the endowments of the Colleges withdrawn; if it is the case that Dr. Molloy, as Commissioner, will be empowered to examine and report upon the work of those Professors of the Queen's Colleges who, as Fellows or Examiners of the Royal University, are associated with him in the examinations, both of students of the Queen's Colleges and of the Catholic University College, in which he is himself a Professor; and, if it is the case that Dr. Molloy has already shown, in his published letters, that he has a personal interest in the decision and result of the present Commission, by warmly advocating the disendowment of the Queen's Colleges, and the transfer of at least a part of their funds to that University of which he is a salaried official, so as to make them available for the students of the Denominational College of which he is a Professor, and whose Professors already receive about £3,600 a-year from the funds of the Royal University?
§ MR. TREVELYANIt is the case that the Rev. Dr. Molloy is a Fellow of the Royal University, and discharges duty and receives remuneration in connection with that University. With regard to the published letters referred to in the Question, I have received a communication from Dr. Molloy in which he mentions the circumstances to be that in discharge of his functions as Rector of the Catholic University he presented to the Catholic Bishops of Ireland last October a Report on the progress and developement of the Catholic University during the preceding 12 months, and in this Report he endeavoured to establish from public official records that the students who had presented themselves at the examinations of the Royal University from the Colleges of the Catholic University had been more successful in gaining Scholarships and Exhibitions than the students who had gone up for the same examinations from the Queen's Colleges. His Report was commented on in a Dublin newspaper by the President of the Queen's College, Belfast, and Dr. Molloy replied in a letter addressed to the same journal. 541 With regard to the rest of the Question, I have only to say that in the selection of the members of the Commission the Government felt it right that various phases of opinion should be represented, and that by gentlemen who would command the confidence of the public. The Government have endeavoured to the best of their ability to fulfil these conditions in the appointment of the Commissioners, and they are confident that the gentlemen appointed will discharge their duty impartially and with fidelity.