§ MR. WILLIAM JOHNSTON (Belfast, S.)I beg to ask the Chief Secretary to the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, in view of the fact that the three Queen's Colleges in Ireland send up for the medical examinations of the Royal University at least three times as many candidates as does the Catholic University School of Medicine, will he explain why one-half of the total of Fellows and Examiners appointed by the Royal University are apportioned to the Catholic University; and, whether there is any clause in the Charter or Statutes of the Royal University giving this representation to the Catholic University at the expense of the Queen's Colleges of Belfast, Cork, and Galway.
§ MR. GERALD BALFOURThe charter and statutes of the Royal University of Ireland empower the Senate to appoint or employ such examiners as may be necessary, and impose no restrictions as to the persons who may be so employed. I am informed by the secretaries to the University that it has been the usual practice ever since its foundation to appoint, as far as possible, one-half of its ordinary examiners from amongst the professors of the endowed or Queen's colleges, and the other half from the professors of unendowed colleges. This practice has been followed in the medical as well as in the arts faculty.