the exclusive policy of the Act of Uniformity of 1662, but by no means in accordance with the present views of the people of this country on religious toleration, for "no sound principle can be found, upon which the subscription to any religious test can be required in connexion with giving or receiving literary or scientific instruction ;"*-and civil privileges in other respects are already accorded by the laws of the land to nearly all religious denominations. The exclusion of Roman Catholics and Dissenters from the ancient seats of English learning is felt to be invidious and injurious; it is considered by a body of Leeds petitioners to be "an act of persecution for conscience sake, a wrong inflicted, a penalty unmerited, and a violation of that liberty which is the birthright of every British subject.” "The constitution regards us all as one people; and the exclusion of subjects and citizens, on the ground of creed and conscience, from the national seats of learning is as unconstitutional, as it is contrary to the first principles of liberty and equity." The Leeds petitioners pray, that the House of Commons would institute such inquiries and would adopt such measures as may be the means of securing to conscientious dissenters from the ecclesiastical establishment of the country, access to the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and the full enjoyment of all the advantages held forth to studious youth in those seats of learning. A spirited idea of a similar kind is thus enunciated by the Rev. Mark Pattison, M.A., in his evidence presented to the Oxford University Commission: * Manchester Petition in 1844; see p. 524 in this work. + Petition from inhabitants of Leeds, presented to the House of Commons by W. Aldam, Esq., M.P. "Untie our hands, and open our gates; and let us at least try if we can attract here, and can usefully deal with, that larger circle of youth, whom we are told we ought to have here. Mr. Duncan, the keeper of the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, and formerly Fellow of New College, informs the Commissioners † that the general complaints which he hears against our Universities, after the great complaint, which touches on that most sensitive part of parents, their pockets, are "the great deficiencies in our students, of good reading, correct writing of their own language, and capability of delivering their sentiments in public, so well as many of our common artisans and tradesmen, as manifested in the pulpit, in Parliament, at the bar, and in common assemblies on public occasions. Our Greek and Latin, the great passports of gentility, not being producible, cannot be tested, and the good fruits of them not being apparent, are thought not to exist. It is, therefore, very desirable that some knowledge, bearing on the purposes of life, should be communicated, which may be gradually developed elsewhere, and made subservient to professional occupations." The recommendations of the Cambridge University Commissioners are scattered in different parts of their Report, and their general tenor is less decidedly reforming with respect to the Colleges than the recommendations of the Oxford Commissioners. Both Reports are well worthy of the consideration of the public: indeed, it will probably be advantageous that the suggestions of the Oxford and Cambridge Com * P. 211 in this work. † Evidence of P. B. Duncan, Esq., M.A., p. 10. missioners, with the evidence collected by them, should be submitted to a select committee of the House of Commons, with power to send for persons, books, and papers, and in which various national interests may be represented. The Commissioners of both Universities would thus by their Reports have assisted in the collection of materials for the practical improvement of those seats of learning, and the realization of the important project especially recommended by the Oxford Commission, "that the manufacturing and mercantile, which has arisen by the side of the landed, aristocracy, and which is exercising a great influence on the public counsels, should seek to have its sons brought up where so many eminent statesmen of past and present times have been trained.”* * P. 177 in this work. ( xxix) CONTENTS. PAGE RECOMMENDATIONS of the Royal Commissioners respecting the Uni- versity of Oxford On the College Oaths, and on the Reform of the College Statutes - Suggestions respecting a direct enactment for the removal of restric- tions on the election of Fellows of Colleges arising from birthplace Suggestions respecting the removal or modification of statutable obli- gations on Fellows of Colleges, to reside in College, to take holy orders, to be unmarried, not to hold landed property, and to proceed to higher University degrees Recommendations for improving the mode of electing Fellows of Col- Suggestions respecting the limitation in the value of Fellowships to an amount not less than 1507., nor more than 300l. per annum Recommendation on the ecclesiastical patronage of the Colleges Observations on an improved distribution of the College revenues Advantages likely to be offered to Students generally by the opening - - - 1. Number of Fellowships (35) likely to become vacant every 2. Appropriation of certain Fellowships to the new studies of the 4. Application of College revenues to the endowment of Uni- - Recommendation that provisions for the endowment of Professorships Statistics of the revenues of some of the Colleges at Oxford - - - On the number of residents in the University of Oxford [Census in 1842 of the number of residents in the University of Actual average expenses throughout the University under the present Opening of the University to a larger and poorer class Restoration of the University, which has been absorbed in the Colleges 213 Economy of allowing students to live in lodgings, without connexion |