Page:Dictionary of National Biography, Second Supplement, volume 3.djvu/263

 and his work as a New Testament critic attracted a larger audience. His numerous articles in the 'Dictionary of Christian Biography' (1877-87) show his grasp of the history of the second century; and his 'Introduction to the New Testament' (1885; 7th edit. 1894) was acclaimed on its publication as a powerful reply to the dissolvent speculations of German criticism. Conservative in tendency, the book is destructive of extravagant theories of Christian origins rather than a positive statement of the results which a sober scholarship is prepared to maintain. The same characteristic of the author's method was apparent in his criticisms of Hort's reconstruction of the Greek text of the New Testament, which appeared in 1897 ('Thoughts on the Textual Criticism of the New Testament'), criticisms of which the sagacity has since been widely recognised. During the last ten years of life, Salmon spent much time upon the Synoptic problem, and his illuminating notes were carefully edited after his death in 1907 by a former pupil, N. J. D. White, under the title 'The Human Element in the Gospels.'

In 1888 Salmon was appointed provost of Trinity College by Lord Salisbury, on the recommendation of the lord-lieutenant of Ireland (Lord Londonderry), with the unanimous approval of the fellows. In 1892 he presided with dignity over the tercentenary festival of Dublin University. A conservative in politics, he was also conservative of academic tradition, and as provost he rather opposed than promoted changes in the university system under which he had been trained. He was de facto as well as de jure, master of the college. The admission of women to university degrees, which was carried in the last year of his life, was almost the only important reform, introduced into the academic system under his rule, which was distasteful to him.

Salmon received many academic honours, besides those which his own university bestowed. He was a member of the Royal Irish Academy (1843), which awarded him the Cunningham medal in 1858, besides being a foreign member of the Institute of France, and honorary member of the Royal Academies of Berlin, Göttingen, and Copenhagen. He was fellow of the Accademia dei Lincei of Rome (1885); was made hon. D.C.L. Oxford (1868), LL.D. Cambridge (1874), D.D. Edinburgh (1884), D.Math. Christiania (1902); was fellow of the Royal Society (1863), which awarded him the royal medal in 1868 and the Copley medal in 1889; became F.R.S. Edinburgh, and was on the original list of the fellows of the British Academy (1902). He was president of the Mathematical and Physical Section of the British Association in 1878. He was also chancellor of St. Patrick's Cathedral (1871), and was presented with the freedom of the city of Dublin in 1892.

Hospitable and kindly, Salmon had many friends and interests. In youth a competent musician and a chess player of remarkable powers, he cultivated both recreations until an advanced age. He was always an omnivorous reader (except in the two departments of metaphysics and poetry, for which he had no taste), and had a special affection for the older novelists, being accustomed to recommend the study of Jane Austen as a liberal education. The homely vigour and the delightful wit of the long letters which he was accustomed to write to his friends entitle him to rank as one of the best letter-writers of the last century.

Salmon died in the Provost's House on 22 Jan. 1904, and was buried in Mount Jerome cemetery.

Salmon married in 1844 Frances Anne, daughter of the Rev. J. L. Salvador of Staunton, Herefordshire (d. 1878); of his four sons and two daughters the eldest son (Edward William) and the younger daughter (Fanny Mary) survived hum. A striking portrait of Salmon, painted by Benjamin Constant, at the request of the fellows of the college, in 1897, is preserved in the Provost's House at Dublin; and an earlier portrait (by Miss Sara Purser in 1888) belongs to the common room at Trinity. A posthumous bas-relief of his head, in bronze (by A. Bruce-Joy), forms part of the memorial in St. Patrick's Cathedral; while a seated statue in marble executed by Mr. John Hughes for Trinity College was unveiled on 14 June 1911. The Salmon fund (for poor students), and the Salmon exhibitions for members of the Divinity School, were endowed by him at Trinity while he was provost, in addition to other benefactions to the college. A window is dedicated to his memory in the church at the Riffel Alp, where he had spent several vacations.

Among Salmon's works, in addition to those already described, and apart from pamphlets, occasional sermons, and articles in reviews or magazines, are the following : 1. 'Sermons preached in Trinity College Chapel,' 1861. 2. 'The Eternity of Future Punishment,' 1864. 3. 'The Reign of Law,' 1873. 4. 'Non-miraculous Christianity,' 1881; 2nd edit. 1887. 5. Commentary on