A Licensing Meeting was accordingly held by the Justices on the 22nd of August, when about 200 persons attended and obtained licences. The dispute as to the power of licensing between the Vicechancellor and Justices subsequently occasioned legal proceedings.(1) By an Act, which received the royal assent on the 13th of August, the Vicechancellor for the time being, the Representatives in Parliament for the time being, the Heads and Presidents of all Colleges and Halls for the time being, all Doctors in Divinity, all Doctors of Law and Physic resident in the University and Liberties thereof, the Proctors and Bedels for the time being, were constituted Land Tax Commissioners for the University of Cambridge; and by the same Act, the Mayor, Aldermen, Recorder and Councillors for the Borough for the time being, were, with others, constituted Commissioners of the Land Tax for the Town of Cambridge.(2) "An Act for the better Administration of Justice in certain Boroughs," which received the royal assent on the 20th of August, contains the following clause :— 'AND WHEREAS Doubts have been entertained whether, under the Provisions ' of the said recited Act,(3) it may be lawful for his Majesty from Time to Time to constitute and appoint the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Cambridge 'for the Time being a Justice of the Peace in and for the Town and Borough ' of Cambridge;' BE IT THEREFORE ENACTED, That it shall be lawful for His Majesty, His Heirs and Successors, from Time to Time, if His Majesty shall so think fit, in and by His Commission of the Peace for the said Town and Borough, to constitute and appoint the Vice-Chancellor of the University for time being a Justice of the Peace for the said Town and Borough, any thing in the said recited Act or in this Act to the contrary notwithstanding: PROVIDED ALWAYS, that no Vice-Chancellor of the said University, by reason of his being named in any Commission of the Peace for the said Town and Borough, shall thereby have as touching the Grant of Licences to Alehouses, any greater Authority as Justice of the Peace than any other Justice of the Peace named in any such Commission, but that nothing in this Act shall be construed to alter or in any way to affect the Rights and Privileges which the Vice-Chancellor by virtue of his Office now lawfully has or enjoys, or might have lawfully had and enjoyed if the Vice-Chancellor had not been appointed under the Provisions of this Act a Justice of the Peace for the said Town and Borough (4) The Lord Chancellor, under the provisions of the Municipal Corporations Act, appointed William Adams, William Freeman Coe, Charles Henry Cooper, Samuel Evans, Charles Finch Foster, Richard Foster Junr., Henry Headly, Thomas Hovell, James Johnson, William 1) See under the year 1838. (2) Stat. 6 & 7 Gul. IV. c. 80. (3) Stat. 5 & 6 Gul. IV. c. 75, s, 98. Mortlock, William Searle, and William Herring Smith, Trustees of the Hospital of St. Anthony and St. Eligius, Sir Thomas White's Charity, and Knight's Almshouses, which charities had been under the controul of the Corporation. On the 5th of October, the Board of Guardians, in pursuance of the Act for Registering Births, Deaths, and Marriages, and with the approval of the Registrar General, divided the Town into the following Registration Districts : ST. ANDREW THE LESS DISTRICT, comprising the Parish of St. Andrew the Less. ST. GILES'S DISTRICT, comprising the Parishes of St. Giles, St. Peter, St. Clement, and the Holy Sepulchre. GREAT ST. MARY'S DISTRICT, comprising the Parishes of St. Michael, St. Mary the Great, St. Edward, St. Benedict, St. Botolph, and St. Mary the Less. GREAT ST ANDREW'S DISTRICT, comprising the Parishes of the Holy Trinity, St. Andrew the Great, and All Saints. At the election of Mayor, there were 18 votes for Ebenezer Foster Alderman, and 11 for Elliot Macro Smith Alderman. On the 15th of November, William Poulter, of St. Andrew's Street, was discommuned by the Vicechancellor and nine other Heads of Colleges, for having suffered persons in statu pupillari to resort to his house for the purpose of playing at billiards. The following railway schemes in connection with Cambridge, were proposed in the course of this year: 1. Cambridge, by Whittlesey and Peterborough to York-[by the Northern and Eastern Railway Company]. 2. Cambridge to Tring-[by Mr. Cruikshank]. 3. Cambridge, by Newmarket, to Bury St. Edmund's. 4. The Cambridge Transverse Railway from Cambridge, eastward to Newmarket and Bury St. Edmund's; and westward to St. Ives, Huntingdon, Thrapston and Kettering, to Market Harborough, there to join the projected South Midland line to Northampton and Leicester. 5. The Grand East and West Junction Railway from Cambridge, by Caxton, St. Neot's, and Bedford, to Newport Pagnell, there to join the London and Birmingham Railway. None of these schemes were carried into effect. 1837. On the 3rd of January, a general subscription was commenced to supply the poor and sick with bread, soup, and blankets, during the severe season. About £350. was subscribed. At a public meeting of the inhabitants (convened by the Mayor, and over which he presided) held at the Town Hall, on the 16th of January, it was agreed to petition the House of Commons in favour The of the adoption of vote by ballot at parliamentary elections. resolutions were proposed and supported by R. Foster jun. Esq., Mr. J. J. Cribb, George Leapingwell, Esq., Mr. C. H. Cooper, H. S. Foster Esq., and P. Beales Esq. George Pryme Esq., one of the Members for the Town, also addressed the meeting. In Hilary Term, Edwin Sandys obtained from the King's Bench a rule calling on the Master and Fellows of Peterhouse to shew cause why a mandamus should not issue commanding them to admit Mr. Boteler, his nominee, to a fellowship on the Parke foundation in that college, and Sir Edwin Bayntun Sandys Bart. obtained a like rule, in favour of Mr. Lamotte, his nominee. The Court afterwards enlarged both rules until after the trial of a feigned issue which they directed to try whether Mr. Sandys had a better right to nominate than Sir E. B. Sandys. Mr. Sandys had a verdict on this issue, which was tried before Lord Denman at the London sitsings after Michaelmas Term, 1838. After an unsuccessful application for a new trial, the Court discharged Sir E. B. Sandys's rule, and made the rule absolute for a mandamus to admit Mr. Boteler. This mandamus issued and was obeyed.(1) On the 16th of March, the Senate voted a petition to the House of Commons against the Bill for abolishing Church Rates. About the same time petitions against the Bill were sent up from each parish in the town. Petitions in its favour were also sent up from this town. The Earl of Radnor this year introduced into the House of Lords a Bill reciting that the Colleges and Halls established at Oxford and Cambridge are possessed of great estates and funds, bestowed with the intention of providing for poor and indigent persons, of promoting religion and virtue, and of encouraging learning and the liberal arts; that many of such Colleges and Halls were founded in times of remote antiquity, and nearly all of them before the reign of Queen Elizabeth; and that the statutes prescribed by the original founders had been altered, and latterly many even of their more recent statutes had also been long and habitually disregarded in the ordinary administration of their affairs; and enacting that Commissioners should be appointed by the King, under the Great Seal, to enquire into the amount, nature, and application of the estates and funds of the said Colleges and Halls, and into the said statutes and the ordinary administration of the affairs of each College and Hall, and also how far the said estates and funds might be made more (1) Adolphus & Ellis's Reports, New Series, i. 314. conducive to the objects intended by the founders and benefactors, and for which they were endowed, and to the diffusion of religion and virtue, and the encouragement of learning and the liberal arts. St. John's and King's Colleges petitioned against this Bill, as also the University of Oxford and several of the Colleges there. The second reading was moved by the Earl of Radnor on the 11th of April, whereupon Dr. Copleston Bishop of Llandaff proposed as an amendment that it should be read a second time that day six months. This amendment was supported by the Marquess Camden (Chancellor of this University), Dr. Howley Archbishop of Canterbury, the Duke of Wellington, and Lords Abinger and Wynford, whilst Lord Holland, Viscount Melbourne, and Lord Brougham expressed their approval of the Bill. The amendment was carried without a division, but the Earl of Radnor, Lords Holland, Brougham, Hatherton, Sommerhill, and Duncannon entered a protest against the decision.(1) On the 4th of May, Mr. Pryme, one of the Members for the Town of Cambridge, moved the House of Commons to address the King to issue a Commission to enquire into the state of the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge and the respective Colleges therein. Mr. Edward Lytton Bulwer seconded the motion, which Mr. Poulter opposed. Mr. Spring Rice Chancellor of the Exchequer (the other Member for the Town) suggested that the Crown should be left to act upon its own sense of public duty without the interposition of the House, and intimated that he should move the previous question if his colleague pressed the motion to a division. After an explanatory speech from Mr. Goulburn, who stated that the Universities would themselves make such regulations as the change of circumstances required, and a few words from Mr. Escourt, the motion was withdrawn; Mr. Pryme expressing a hope that Ministers would take the necessary steps on their own responsibility.(2) On the 8th of May, the Earl of Radnor moved in the House of Lords the appointment of a Select Committee to inquire into the practice and statutes of the Colleges and Halls in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and to report whether any legislative measure was necessary to enable the governing bodies to make alterations and amendments. This occasioned a debate, in which the Duke of Wellington, the Marquess Camden, Dr. Copleston Bishop of Llandaff, Dr. Kaye Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Monk Bishop of Glou (1) Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, xxxvii. 1001.-Shortly after the rejection of the Earl of Radnor's bill appeared "A Historical Account of the University "of Cambridge, and its Colleges; in a Letter to the Earl of Radnor, by Benjamin Dann "Walsh, M.A. Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge."-London, 8vo. 1837. (2) Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, xxxviii. 509. cester, Dr. Whateley Archbishop of Dublin, Lord Brougham, Lord Wynford, and the Earl of Winchelsea took part. The Duke of Wellington and the Marquess Camden, the Chancellors of the two Universities, having intimated that the greater portion of the Colleges were willing and desirous of entering upon a revision of their statutes through the instrumentality of their Visitors, the Earl of Radnor withdrew his motion.(1) On the 19th of May, Viscount Canterbury presented to the House of Lords a petition from 753 resident Bachelors and Undergraduates of the University against any interference with the statutes of the University, praying their Lordships not to sanction any measure that might endanger its security, and expressive of confidence in those by whom it was governed. On the 23rd of May, the Earl of Radnor presented to the House of Lords a petition from certain Undergraduates for an alteration of the statutes of the University.(2) This petition had 136 signatures. On the 24th of May, Her Royal Highness the Princess Victoria attained the 18th year of her age. A congratulatory address to Her Royal Highness on the occasion was voted by the Council, and 220 of the inhabitants celebrated the event by a dinner at the Town Hall, Ebenezer Foster Esq. Mayor presiding. In the evening there was a grand display of fireworks in the grounds of King's College, and the Town Hall, the principal inns, and several private houses were illuminated. On the 31st of May, Lord Langdale(3) Master of the Rolls made a decree on an information by the Attorney General (at the relation of William Reeves Jeremiah Thring and William Metcalfe) against the Master and Fellows of Gonville and Caius College and others, with reference to the Free Grammar School founded by Stephen Perse M.D. and the other charitable purposes of his will.(4) His Lordship declared that the lands and funds then in possession of the College, as trustees and supervisors of Dr. Perse's will (except £100. part of such fund), are subject to the trusts of the will of Dr. Perse; and that the sum of £100. is subject to the trusts of the will of Mr. Griffith(5); that the school-house and other property, (1) Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, Third Series, xxxviii, 658. (2) Ibid. 978. (3) His Lordship, when Mr. Bickersteth, had himself, as one of the four senior fellows of Gonville and Caius College, been a Trustee of Dr. Perse's benefaction. In or about 1830 he voluntarily returned to the College nearly £800, which had been paid him out of the Perse fund, but to which he conceived he was not justly entitled. (4) Vide Vol. iii. p. 94. (5) Vide Vol. iii. p. 94, n (1). |