THE LATE PRESIDENT OF MAYNOOTH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume VII, Issue 372, 4 June 1880, Page 17

THE LATE PRESIDENT OF MAYNOOTH.

The death of the Right Rev. Mgr. Russell, President of Maynooth College, took place on the 26th February, in Dublin at the house of his life-long friend, Mr. John O'Hagan, Q.C. His name -was well known outside of Ireland, and wherever it was known it was honoured. In Ireland he was held in the most affectionate esteem by the entire body of prelates and priests, and with laymen he was equally popular. The splendid testimony borne by his Eminence Cardinal Newman to the important share which Dr. Russell had in the process of his conversion is too well-known to need any but the briefest reference here, and would, were there nothing else with it, of itself constitute a lasting and glorious memorial of his virtues, his zeal, and his influence. Dr. Russell had attained to the 68th year of his age, having been born in 1812. His native place was Killough, in Co. Down, and his name was an old and respected one in that portion of the North of Ireland. He entered Maynooth College in his 14th year, and thug early in life consecrated himself to tke services ol Ms Maker. His College career was a remarkably distinguished one, and throughout the entire period of it he gave marked evidence of those literary tastes and inclinations which he continued to foster and cultivate to the close of his days. At the termination of bis ordinary theological course, he was selected for one of the vacant places in the Dunboyne establishment, and in 1835, was appointed by the Board of Trustees to the chair of Humanity. His great classical knowledge and his pure literary style admirably served him in his professorship, and were the subject of unbounded admiration. On the granting of the increased endowment to the College by Sir Robert Peel in 1845, the chair of Ecclesiastical History was founded there, and the Board of Trustees at once unanimously elected Dr. Russell to it. This chair he continued to occupy till 1857, when, «nthe death of the Very Rev. Dr. Renehan, he was chosen by the trustees for the honourable but arduous and responsible office of President of the College. His lectures on ecclesiastical history were brimful of erudition, and were delivered in the most chaste and classical English. Many of his lectures on Church history, or on special periods of history, were subsequently put into shape by him and are published in the DubUn Review. His rule as President was marked by consummate prudence and discretion, imperturbable good temper, inexhaustible patience, persuasive gentleness, firmness of purpose, great Christian charity and kindness whenever its exercise was required. The Episcopacy had implicit confidence in him — his brethren in the government of the College cherished towards him the most genuine affection, and the students over whom he was placed paid him the high tribute of an obedience and respect that had no other source than love. Dr. Russell was an active literary worker. He was a large contributor to the Dublin Review ; took part in the editing of Duffy's Irish Magazine, and contributed a great number of most interesting articles and sketches to its pages ; he translated with exquisite felicity a good many of Canon Schmid's fascinating Catholic stories ; he wrote a life of Cardinal Mezzof anti, the marvellous linguist ; he contributed also to the Edinburgh and North British Review ; to the Encyclqpcedia Britannica, the English Encyolopcedia, and the Atherueum, and more than once gave evidence of skill and grace and power in the way of poetry. In private life he was the very essence of all that was loveable, and those homes where his presence was familiar will long be darkened by the shadow which his death has cast over them. R. 1. P.