Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 7.djvu/519

499 DUBLIN 499 Trinity College is set down as about 65,000 a year. The average number of students on the books is about 1300. By an Act passed in 1873, known as Fawcett s Act, all tests were abolished, and the prizes and honours of all grades hitherto reserved for Protestants of the Established Church were thrown open to all. Examinations for women are now held under the direction of the College. The Queen s University, founded in 1 85 0, has quarters in Dublin Castle; but the three colleges are in Cork, Belfast, and Galway. Dublin has no share in the advan tages of the university, which are considerable. The Roman Catholic University derives its entire support from voluntary contributions. There is an annual collection on a certain Sunday in November, and this realizes about .8000. The management is in the hands of the Catholic bishops. The medical school in connection with the uni versity has attained great repute in Ireland. The Royal College of Science, controlled by the Science and Art Department, is conducted by ten professors. The number of students is seldom greater than 30, amongst whom four royal scholarships and nine royal exhibitions (value 50 for two and three years respectively) are divided. The Parliamentary grant is 6902 per annum. The Royal Dublin Society and the Royal Irish Academy are devoted to science and art. The one receives 7500 a year, and the other 2480. The Royal Hibernian Academy has 300, and the National Gallery 2340 a year. The Zoological Society, having its gardens in the Phoenix Park, has 500 a year. Schools. Tn 1871 there were in the city 336 schools 257 primary and 79 superior. In attendance at the primary were 19,782 Roman Catholics, 4602 Episcopalians, and 842 Presbyterians and others ; in attendance at the superior are 1491 Roman Catholics, 2334 Protestants, and 566 Presbyterians and others. This gives a general total of 29,617 The education of all classes in Dublin is shown in the following figures: in 1871, 150,581 of seven years and upwards could read and write, 24,224 could read but could not write, and 35,633 were illiterate. Charities. Dublin can boast a goodly nnmber of charities. There are 113 charitable institutions, some for the deaf and dumb, the blind, the destitute, the distressed, the unemployed ; some for the education of the reduced, and for the sons and daughters of clergy men ; and some for orphans, for idiots, for convalescent patients. The Drummond Institution, for the orphan daughters of soldiers, was established in 1864 by a Scotch gentleman named Drum mond, who left 20, 000 to found the asylum. The Hospital and Free School of King Charles I., commonly called the Blue Coat School, was founded 1670. The school buildings are very handsome, and cost 21,000. The annual income is 4000 a year. The education afforded to 120 boys is of a very superior character. Be fore the Irish Parliament Houses were erected the parliament met in the school building. Molyneux Asylum for the blind, a splendid building near the city boundary, affords refuge and instruction to 70 females. There are 30 hospitals, of which the chief are The Westmoreland Lock, parliamentary grant 2600 ; Steevens, parliamentary grant 1300, donations, &c., 4177; the Meath, parliamentary grant 600, city grant 750, donations 1913 ; Cork Street Fever, parliamentary grant 2500, donations 1293; House of Industry Hospitals (3), parliamentary grant 7472, donations 693 ; Rotundo Lying-in, parliamentary grant, 700, city 300, donations 2342 ; Coombe Lying-in, parliamentary grant 200, city 260, donations 2167 ; Incurables, parliamentary grat 250, city 150, donations 6000; St Mark s Eye and Ear, parlia mentary grant 100, city 100, donations 735. These 11 hospitals in 1875 admitted 9645 patients, and received from Parliament 15,722, from the city authorities 1560, from subscriptions 19, 353. Total income of all 36,635. Of the houses supported by voluntary contributions the Adelaide (Protestant), the Mater Misericordise, St Vincent s, and the City of Dublin hospitals are the most important. Lunatics are maintained in St Patrick s Hospital, founded in 1745, pursuant to the will of Dean Swift, and conducted by governors appointed under the charter of incorporation. The Richmond Lunatic Asylum, erected near the House of Industry, and placed under the care of officers appointed by Government, receives patients from a district consisting of the counties of Dublin, Louth, Meath, and &quot;Wicklow, each of these contributing towards its expenses in proportion to the number of patients sent in. Besides these public establishments for the recovery and safe custody of lunatics, there are in the vicinity of Dublin various private asylums. The principal institution for the blind is Simpson s Hospital, founded by a merchant of Dublin. The income is upwards of 2500 per annum, by which fifty patients are maintained in a large plain edifice situate in Great Britain Street. The apartment can accommodate a hundred inmates. The Richmond National Institu tion in Sackville Street was founded in order to instruct the blind in some of the more useful handicraft occupations. The principal branches taught are weaving, netting, and basket-making. An institution for the maintenance and education of children born deaf and dumb is maintained at Claremont, near Glasnevin. The plan of the Royal Hospital, for decayed and maimed soldiers, was first suggested by the earl of Essex, when lord lieutenant, and carried into effect through the repeated applications of the duke of Ormond to Charles II. The site chosen for it was that of the ancient priory of Kilmainham, founded by Strongbow for Knights Templars. The building, completed in 1684, according to a plan of Sir Christopher Wren, is an oblong 306 feet by 288, three sides of which are dwelling-rooms, connected by covered corridors. The fourth contains the chapel, the dining hall, and the apartments of the master, who is always the commander of the forces for the time being. The Roman Catholic Church has charge of a number of special charities, some of them educational and some of them for the relief of suffering. Libraries, &c. The principal library in Dublin, for the number and value of its books, is that of Trinity College. It is open of right only to graduates of that university, but admission is obtain able by others by special favour. It contains about 190,000 printed volumes, and 1500 manuscripts. The King s Inns Library is next in value. The right of reading in it is con fined to the members of the King s Inns Society, that is, to barristers, attorneys, and law students. Marsh s Library, attached to St Patrick s Cathedral by the munificent bequest of Primate Marsh, archbishop of Armagh, and incorporated in 1707, contains a good collection of theological works, and is open to the public ; but, from the very small portion of its funds appropriated to purchase, it is very deficient in modern publications. It possesses some valuable manuscripts. The want of a library easily accessible, and provided with the works most in request, was attempted to be supplied by a society formed in 1791 (the Dublin Library Society), which collected a large number of books in a handsome and well-arranged building in D Olier Street. Attached to the library is a fine reading-room, well supplied with newspapers. The Library of the Royal Dublin Society contains upwards of 12,000 volumes. It is particularly rich in works on botany, and in those relating to Ireland. It has likewise a gallery of statuary, in which are casts from the Elgin marbles. The library, museum, and gallery are open to the public, in happy contravention of the rules, which have been strained in the laudable direction of popularizing self-instruction. The Royal Irish Academy s Library is valuable of its kind. It contains many ancient manuscripts, and works dealing with science and anti quities. Public Buildings. Dublin has several noble edifices. The first and greatest is the Bank of Ireland, formerly the House of Parliament, which occupies five acres. There are three fronts. The principal, towards College Green, a colonnade of the Ionic order, formed of a facade and two projecting wings, is much admired for the noble simplicity of its elevation. The western front, a portico of four Ionic columns, is connected with the other by a colonnade of the same order, forming the quadrant of a circle. The eastern front, which was the entrance of the House of Lords, was, by their special wish, a colonnade of the Corinthian order, which the architect found great difficulty in uniting with the other parts. The apartment for the lords, a fine room, is hung with tapestry. That of the commons, having been burned in 1792, was reconstructed after a more ele gant design, in the form of a circle surrounded by pillars, between which was a gallery for hearers. This fine hall was taken down by the bank directors, and converted into a square room, now the cash-office. The House of Lords remains in its original condition, and is but seldom used. Trinity College is in itself a source of legitimate pride to the city. The front is plain and massive. The inner courts are large and well proportioned. On the left is the examination hall, containing full length portraits of the qiieen founder, of Molyneux, of Edmund Burke, Bishop Berkeley, and other celebrities. On the right stand the chapel and the dining hall, side by side, the former having a very handsome interior, and the latter having portraits of