On Wednesday Mr. Parker-Smith's amendment to omit the words "Dublin
University shall cease to return any Member," was discussed. To this amendment, Mr. Swift MacNeill was opposed, on the ground that the Dublin University was a mere instrument for forcing Tory lawyers on to the Bench, while Mr. Gladstone resisted it both because the whole tendency of the day was unfavourable to the representation of classes, and because he held that if culture was to be represented at all, the legal profession, and the Colleges of physicians and surgeons, would prove much better constituencies than any University. After a lengthened discussion, Mr. Morley proposed the Closure, but the Chairman did not accept it ; and Mr. Goschen pointed out that a University constituency included culture of all kinds, while the legal profession or the medical profession included culture of a single type only. Dublin University covered a very wide area of otherwise unrepresented opinion, and the two seats might easily be saved by grouping a few small boroughs. However, the amendment was rejected by a majority of 32 (280 to 248).
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