The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
History
The Book of Trinity College Dublin 1591-1891
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
Trinity College (Dublin, Ireland)
This public evidence has, however, not weighed in the minds of
historians so strongly as the violent pamphlet called _Lachrymæ
Academicæ_, written against the Provost by his bitter personal
enemy, Dr. Patrick Duigenan, who as a Junior Fellow was at
perpetual variance with his chief, and at last resigned his
Fellowship to take a Chair of Law, which was increased in value
(with the Provost’s consent) to induce his resignation. This
exceedingly violent _ex parte_ statement seems to me chiefly
valuable for its allusions to the internal affairs of the College
not at issue in the dispute. The tone is scurrilous, and the
confident prediction that a few more years of the Provost’s
manipulation must ruin the College falsified by the facts. Instead
of securing all the posts in the College for partizans of his own,
the Provost met with more and more opposition, especially from the
Junior Fellows, as years elapsed. In 1775, a scholar whom he had
deprived insisted upon a Visitation, in which Primate Robinson,
the Vice-Chancellor, decided against the Provost. In 1791, another
Vice-Chancellor, Lord Clare, decided against him on the right of
negative, which he claimed under the Statutes in every election.
The sense of the Statute is plain enough. It ordains that the
majority of Provost and Board shall decide elections; but if such
majority could not be obtained after two scrutinies--that is to
say, if the Senior Fellows had divided their votes among three or
more candidates, so that none of them had more than three--then the
Provost’s vote, even if it stood alone, shall decide the election.
This very reasonable Statute was, however, so worded, that another
interpretation was possible, ordaining that even in an absolute
majority of votes the Provost’s must be one. Lord Clare decided
rightly that the disputed words _una cum Præposito, vel eo absente
Vice-Præposito_, merely meant that the Senior Fellows could not
elect without the presence of either of these officers.[94]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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