petition out of the boys in Winchester College, whether on the Foundation or not. If there were forty Scholar-Fellows in New College there would be, at least, eight vacancies every year. This would afford a strong stimulus to Winchester School. The Scholarships should not be worth less than 507. a-year, besides rooms. Perhaps the worst of all restrictions is that of Founder's kin; but this is an evil only when the alternative is an open election; and, in the case of Foundations confined to schools, it may be regarded as a resource rather than as an impediment to allow any class of persons whatever, besides those educated at the school, to compete. Persons of the kindred of the Founder might therefore be allowed to retain their rights so far as to offer themselves as candidates without having been at Winchester in competition with those who were permitted to stand because of their connexion with Winchester.

"Thirty Fellowships would be more than sufficient to stimulate the Scholars of New College, and to provide that Society with Tutors and officers. If, therefore, it should be desirable to create a Professor-Fellowship, in addition to the fourteen of which we have recommended the creation, the precedent set by the Visitors of King Henry VIII. might be followed without inconvenience, and the Foundation of New College might be rendered useful to the whole University by the erection there of a Professorial Chair.

"It is very desirable that New College should open its gates to as many Commoners as it can accommodate.

It

"This College presents to thirty-seven Benefices. elects the Warden of Winchester College, the Fellows of which are chosen from those who are or have been Fellows of New College. It also presents to the Mastership of the well-endowed school of Bedford." *

Wadham College.

"The great peculiarity of the College is that the tenure of the Fellowship is limited. We have expressed our

*Report, p. 211.

opinion that we are not desirous that such a limitation should be imposed generally; but we should be equally indisposed to see it removed where it exists, unless the College should think it right to remove it. We are of opinion, therefore, that all that is required in this matter is that the Warden and Fellows should be permitted to make, with the sanction of their Visitor, such regulations on the subject as they may think most conducive to the welfare of their society. We have nothing further to recommend with regard to the College than we have recommended for the Colleges generally, namely, that the Fellowships and Scholarships should be thrown entirely open; that the connexion between the Scholarships and Fellowships should be severed; that Scholarships and Exhibitions should be held for five years only; that the Statutes should be revised, and that all oaths to observe them should be declared to be unlawful."*

Exeter College.

"We recommend that the Fellowships should be thrown open to all Bachelors of Arts; that in order to place this College in a less unfavourable position than that in which it would find itself if, when Foundations in general had been relieved from restrictions, it should have only poor Fellowships and Scholarships to offer to Teachers and Students, ten Fellowships should be suspended, the proceeds of five to be distributed among the remaining fifteen Fellows, and the proceeds of the other five to be applied to the creation of ten Scholarships, perfectly open. Fifteen Fellowships would be sufficient to supply tutors and officers.

"This College is obliged to receive two Fellows from external bodies,-one from the Dean and Chapter of Exeter, another from the Dean and Jurats of Jersey and Guernsey alternately. We recommend that the election should in every case be placed in the hands of the Rector and Fellows."†

* Report, p. 246.

+ Ibid., p. 198.

WELSH RESTRICTIONS.

535

Jesus College.

"We are of opinion that the connexion between the Scholarships and Fellowships should be severed; that the Scholarships and Exhibitions should be tenable for five years; and that the College should be empowered to suppress five Fellowships for increasing the number, and if they do not now amount to 50l. per annum, the value of the Scholarships.

"The local restrictions of this College are in some respects peculiar. The result of the numerous limitations of the Benefactions before and since the Statutes were imposed, has been the almost entire closing of a College which on the face of its Statutes presents no restrictions whatever. Whether the original Founder had any intention of confining his College to Wales is difficult to ascertain. No such intention is expressed in the Charter granted at his request by Queen Elizabeth; and of the eight Fellows and eight Scholars appointed in the first instance by that Sovereign, two certainly (Andrewes and Dove), and probably (to judge by their names) the larger part were not of Welsh extraction.* The great interference with Founders' wills effected by the scheme of Sir Leoline Jenkyns, on the ground of general expediency, also furnishes a precedent for any plan for a more beneficial distribution of the endowments than has hitherto been made. We have therefore no hesitation in applying to this College the principle which we have laid down in our General Report, and in recommending that the Fellowships should be thrown open, without restriction of age, birthplace, or parentage, to all Bachelors of Arts. We are assured by Mr. Foulkest that the present limitations operate unfavourably for the most part, not only on the College, but on the Schools in Wales to which the Founda'tions are more or less directly attached.' At the same time, when we consider the peculiar circumstances of the Princi† Evidence, p. 360.

* Wood's Colleges and Halls, p. 569.

pality of Wales, we feel, as we have already stated, that for the present at least it offers an exception to the rule which we have laid down for the entire abolition of local limitations. We shall therefore propose to throw open the Fellowships of the College, but to retain the connexion of one half of the Scholarships with Wales; provided, however, that the Foundations so restricted shall be open, not as now, only to particular counties, schools, or families, but to the whole Principality."

Lincoln College.

"The Statutes, though short, are not observed here more than in other Colleges. One Fellowship is held by a layman. At least five are held by persons habitually nonresident. The two Chaplains have disappeared altogether. The servant of the Rector is transformed into a Bible Clerk. No Fellow in 1851 had taken his Doctor's Degree; seven were Masters of Arts, and one was a B.C.L. No disputations take place in Hall.

"The especial object of the Founder, that of suppressing the doctrines of Wycliffe, has, of course, been frustrated by the Reformation; and it is a curious fact that a College founded for the extirpation of Wycliffism should have numbered amongst its Fellows John Wesley.

"We can have no hesitation in recommending the abolition of an oath, of which the greater part was rendered illegal at the Reformation; the release of the Fellows from the obligation of taking Orders, an obligation which in one instance has been already superseded, and from that of proceeding to the higher Degrees, which has in no case been fully complied with; and the removal of local restrictions, which the framer of the Statutes himself declared to have been imposed not from any carnal and blind affection' to the natives of the favoured localities, but to remedy the evil of their exclusion elsewhere by that carnal blindness' in

others; an evil which, according to the recommendations we propose, would henceforth cease to exist.

"We are further of opinion that the College would be greatly benefited by the removal of local restrictions from Lord Crewe's Exhibitions, which would thus become open Scholarships. The Scholarships and Exhibitions should alike be made tenable for five years.

"We are also of opinion that the disparity of privileges which exists between the Wells Fellow and the others should be removed.'

Brasenose College.

"We are of opinion that the administration of the affairs of the College generally, and all Elections, should be in the hands of the whole body of Fellows; that the appropriation of fines to the Principal and Seniors should cease. It has a tendency to impair the management of the estates. It is in no way contemplated by the Statutes; but it is said to have been maintained by the Visitor, on an appeal from the Junior Fellows. We are of opinion also that the Senior Fellowships should in no case exceed 3007. a-year; that the Junior Fellowships should be raised to 1507.; that the Fellowships should be open to all persons who have passed the Examinations for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts; that, in the spirit of the Founder's intentions, five Fellowships should be suspended, in order to provide support for ten Scholars at least, each to receive 50l. a-year from the goods of the College; the Scholarships to be held for five years, and to be entirely open to all persons under the age of nineteen. We are of opinion, further, that the College should be released from the statutable obligation of requiring Fellows about to be admitted to swear that they have only 47. a-year, and from that of requiring the resignation of Fellowships if the holders have more than ten marks a-year; from that of filling their chambers with poor Scholars; from that of receiving into the College only six heirs of Noblemen, or sons * Report, p. 214.