was declared that no certain and adequate remedy was to be found but in the ample reduction of the general expences of the country.(1)

The Mayor being requested to convene a meeting of the inhabitants to petition against the renewal of the Property Tax declined to do so, twenty-three inhabitants then convened a public meeting, which was held at the Shire Hall, on the 26th of February. Mr. William Hollick took the chair, and Messrs. Thomas Hovell and Charles Humfrey proposed resolutions, strongly condemning the renewal of the tax. These were carried unanimously, as was a petition to the House of Commons, framed upon the resolutions.(2)

On the 1st of April, a meeting of the owners and occupiers of land in the County of Cambridge and Isle of Ely was held at the Rose Tavern: Sir George Leeds Bart. in the chair. Resolutions were passed, affirming the depressed state of agriculture; that the Poor Laws fell with undue weight on the occupiers of land, and needed revision; that the prevalent distress required much further aid than the cessation of the war duty on malt; that the provision of the late Corn Bill allowing the bonding of foreign corn, was highly detrimental, and that the importation of articles of foreign production similar to those grown in our own country, unless accompanied with high protecting duties, could not fail of being most injurious to the agricultural interest of the United Kingdom; that the late depreciation of money was one cause of the then distress; that Government ought to reduce taxes, and give a strict attention to economy and retrenchment in every branch of public expenditure. A committee(3) was appointed to communicate from time to time with the members of Parliament for the county, and the agriculturists were recommended to support the institution of benefit clubs and savings' banks.(4)

On the 4th of May, the Corporation voted an address of congratulation to the Prince Regent, on the marriage of his daughter the Princess Charlotte of Wales with Prince Leopold of Saxe Coburg. This address was presented at Carlton House on the 5th of July, by John Cheetham Mortlock Esq. Mayor, who received the honour of knighthood on the occasion.(5)

(1) Cambridge Chronicle, 23 Feb. 1 March, 1816.

(2) Ibid.

(3) Sir George Leeds Bart. Sergeant Frere, Thomas Quintin Esq. Rev. Townley Clarkson, Henry Gunning Esq. Mr. J. Whitechurch, John Hemington Esq. Wedd William Nash Esq. Henry Thurnall Esq. Ebenezer Foster Esq. Joseph Patteson Wedd Esq. Samuel Pickering Beales Esq.

(4) Cambridge Chronicle, 5 April, 1816.

(5) Corporation Common Day Book; Cambridge Chronicle, 12 July, 1816.

On the 15th of May, the Senate voted an address to the Prince Regent, congratulating him on the marriage of the Princess Charlotte of Wales. It was presented at Carlton House on the 21st, by the Duke of Gloucester Chancellor, Dr. Kaye Vicechancellor, and a deputation from the Senate, accompanied by the Archbishop of Cashel, the Bishops of Chester, Ely, Salisbury, Bristol, Exeter, Bangor, St. Asaph, and Clogher, the Marquess of Lansdowne, Earl Spencer, Earl Compton, Viscount Sidney, Earl Percy, Lord Calthorpe, Viscount Bernard, Lord Weymouth, Sir Thomas Liddell, Hon. J. Villiers, William Wilberforce Esq. and others.(1)

In consequence of serious riots at Littleport and Ely, the magistrates of this town, as a measure of precaution, on the 25th of May swore in a great number of special constables, and appointed stations for their assembling, in the event of any appearance of disturbance here.

On the 22d of June, the Court of King's Bench gave judgment on a presentment against the inhabitants of St. Giles for not repairing that part of the Arrington road which is situate in their parish, to which they had pleaded, that the road in question had been repaired by the inhabitants of Great St. Mary from time beyond memory until the passing of the Arrington Turnpike Act, (2) whereby it was enacted, that that part of the road should be repaired by the Turnpike Trustees, and that the inhabitants of Great St. Mary's should be exempted from repairs on contributing £150. The prosecutor having demurred to this plea, the Court held it bad, as not shewing a consideration whereby to subject the inhabitants of Great St. Mary's to the reparation of a highway in alienâ parochiâ.(3)

The following grace passed the Senate on the 26th of June:— CUM Senatus Consultum Jan. 24, 1766,(4) concessum, omnino taceat de iis qui gradum suscipiant nullis terminis completis: CUMQUE haud æquum videatur ut majora privelegia iis concedantur quo neque in hac neque in alia quavis Academia commorati sunt, quam nostris Alumnis qui omnibus exercitiis Academicis perfuncti nomina sua tabulis collegiorum subduxerint, aut quam iis qui ab Oxonio vel Dublinio huc se contulerunt: PLACEAT VOBIS, ut in posterum nemo Gradum quemque suscipiens ad jus suffragii admittatur, qui non, vel ante vel post gradum susceptum, tres saltem terminos compleverit, nisi qui in Officium Academicum vel Lecturam Publicam, vel in Fundationem alicujus Collegii electus fuerit.(5)

(1) London Gazette, 25 May, 1816; Cambridge Chronicle, 10 May, 24 May, 31 May, 1816, (2) See Order of Sessions, 14 April, 1656 (in Vol. iii. p. 465) wherein this road is denominated as beyond Newnham Bedford way.

(3) Maule and Selwyn's Reports, v. 260.

(4) Vide ante, p. 341 (where date of this grace is erroneously given as 21st January).

(5) Gunning, Ceremonies of Univ. of Camb. 216 (where the above grace is erroneously stated to have passed in 1826).

At the Summer Assizes was tried before Lord Chief Justice Gibbs, an action wherein William Anderson lessee of Jesus College was plaintiff, and Thomas Broadbelt defendant. The question at issue

was the liability of the lands held by the defendant as tenant to Rev. J. W. Geldart to the tithes called St. Rhadegund's tithes. The plaintiff had a verdict.(1)

On the 13th of August, the Vicechancellor and Public Orator presented to the Duke of Gloucester the Chancellor a congratulatory letter on his marriage with the Princess Mary.(2)

On the 24th of October, came on the election of Registrary of the University. The candidates(3) were William Hustler Esq. M.A. fellow of Jesus College, who had 159 votes, and Thomas Turton(4) M.A. fellow of Catharine Hall, who had 104 votes.(5)

Doubts having arisen respecting the persons to whom the right of nominating in the election of Lecturers and other officers belongs, the Vicechancellor and Heads having considered the words of the statute and Lord Burghley's letter thereon,(6) declared the intention and meaning thereof to be that no person can exercise the right of nominating as representative of any Head of a House excepting the Viceprovost, Vicemaster, President, or Locum-tenens regularly appointed, according to the statutes of the college to which he belongs.(7)

By a deed, dated the 27th of November, Charles Burney D.D. and the Rev. John Cleaver Banks M.A., surviving trustees of a fund raised by the friends of Professor Porson and appropriated to his use in his lifetime, transferred to the University £400. Navy £5. per cents. upon trust, that the interest should be annually employed in the purchase of one or more Greek books, to be given to the resident undergraduate who should make the best translation into Greek verse of a proposed passage in Shakspere, Ben Johnson, Massinger or Beaumont and Fletcher.

The Cambridge and Cambridgeshire Savings' Bank was established at a meeting held at the Rose, on the 13th of December, over which the Earl of Hardwicke presided.(8)

(1) Cambridge Chronicle, 9 August, 1816.

(2) Ibid. 16 August, 1816.

(3) There were no less than 11 candidates previously to the nomination.

(4) Now Bishop of Ely.

(5) Cambridge Chronicle, 18 Oct. 25 Oct. 1816.

(6) Vide Vol. ii. p. 309.

(7) Gunning, Ceremonies of Univ. of Camb. 28.

(8) Cambridge Chronicle, 20 Dec. 1816.

1817.

An attack having been made upon the Prince Regent, when returning from opening the Parliament, an Address of congratulation on his escape was voted by the University, which was presented at Carlton House on the 18th of February, by the Duke of Gloucester Chancellor, the Earl of Hardwicke High Steward, Dr. Wood Vicechancellor, the Representatives of the University in Parliament, the Marquess Camden, the Marquess of Huntley, Earl Spencer, Earl Percy' Earl St. Germains, the Marquess Graham, the Earl of Brecknock, Lords Townsend, Bridport, Boston, Sydney, St. Helen's, Bernard, and Clive; the Archbishop of Canterbury, the Bishops of Ely, Salisbury, Exeter, Cloyne, St. Asaph, Chester, and Llandaff, and about 250 other members of the University.(1) On the 21st of February,

an Address of congratulation on the same occasion was voted by the Corporation.(2)

The Union Society, comprising a large proportion of the Undergraduates and younger members of the University, and established (in or about February, 1815, by the union of several similar societies, some of which had existed for many years,) for the discussion of literary and political questions, was interrupted by Dr. Wood the Vicechancellor and the Proctors, who, in March, this year, went to one of the society's meetings at the Red Lion, and commanded the members to discontinue their discussions as inconsistent with academic discipline. A petition, complaining of this interference, signed by several Masters of Arts and noblemen, members of the society, was presented to the Duke of Gloucester Chancellor of the University. The members of the society also presented a remonstrance to the Vicechancellor, in which they demonstrated that each member on an average did not bestow more than ten hours per annum in attendance on the society's meetings, and that none could bestow more than forty hours. They denied that the society interfered with the studies of the members, and for proof stated that they had amongst them three University Scholars, seven Chancellor's Medallists, twelve Browne's Medallists, and several who had attained the highest mathematical honours.(3) They alledged that the union tended to diminish attendance on other clubs and meetings, whose conduct was likely to be less orderly as their objects were less intellectual. They

(1) Cambridge Chronicle, 21 Feb. 28 Feb. 1817.

(2) London Gazette, 27 Feb. 1817,

(3) At the time of the dissolution Mr. Whewell (now Master of Trinity College) was President, Mr. Rose of Trin. Coll. Treasurer, and Mr. Thirlwall of Trin. Coll. (now Bishop of St. David's) Secretary.

agreed (if the society could not be tolerated on other terms) to exclude political as they had ever done theological subjects, and they prayed that the society might not be put down at that particular period when the suppression of societies bearing accidentally the same name might induce those unacquainted with the University to suppose it was suppressed from political motives, and that its members had been guilty of seditious or treasonable language. To this remonstrance the Vicechancellor declined any answer as unnecessary. Ultimately the society was allowed to resume its meetings on the understanding that there should be no discussion on political questions except such as fell "within a floating period of twenty years anterior to the time of discussion."(1)

On the 25th of March, died, at Jesus College, aged 82, the Rev. Robert Tyrwhitt M.A. formerly fellow of that Society. By his will he gave to the University £4000, Navy £5 per cents. for the encouragement of Hebrew Learning.(2)

On the 26th of April, the University voted a petition to the House of Commons, against a bill for enabling ecclesiastical persons and others having qualified interests to make leases of tithes so as to bind their successors.(3)

On the 14th of May, the University voted a petition to the House of Lords, against further concessions to the Roman Catholics.(4)

This year, £20,000 was presented to St. Peter's College, by a gentleman, who concealed his name.(5) He afterwards turned out to be the Rev. Francis Gisborne M.A. formerly fellow of the Society, and his benefaction was applied in founding two fellowships and four scholarships, and in erecting new buildings.

The Magna Congregatio was this year revived, after being discontinued for several years.(6)

(1) This restriction was abolished in or shortly after 1830.

(2) In 1818, the Senate decreed the foundation of three Hebrew scholarships. In 1826, the number was inceased to six. On the 29th of April, 1836, new regulations were made as to the scholarships.

(3) Cambridge Chronicle, 2 May, 9 May, 1817.

(4) Ibid. 16 May, 1817.

(5) Ibid. 30 May, 1817.

(6) The following letter from the Vicechancellor to the Mayor explains the object of the revival:

"Dear Sir,

"July 1st, 1817.

"I beg to inform you that I intend to hold the Magna Congregatio on Friday next at Ten o'clock, and request your attendance in the Chancel "of St. Mary's Church at that hour, with two Aldermen, four Burgesses, and two re"spectable householders from each parish, to enter into the engagements required by " our Charters and the Ancient Customs of the University.

"I am induced to call your particular attention to this business at the present mo"ment on account of the extraordinary influx of Beggars and Vagrants, who constantly