especially in the more distinguished colleges, and the petition sent up against it from Oxford was opposed by fifty-one members of Convocation, whose votes, it will not be very rash to say, were a better indication of the interest of the University as a place of learning and education, and of the interest of the community at large as distinguished from that of an ecclesiastical party, than the 180 votes given on the other side. It is true that the measure was discouraged, and in effect quashed by the present leader of the Liberal party, which proves, no doubt, that it was sincerely liberal in its character, but is very far from proving that it was injudicious or extreme.

The Oxford colleges in elections to fellowships are bound, under their new Parliamentary Ordinances, to choose that candidate, who, after examination, shall be found to be "of the greatest merit and most fit to be a fellow of the college as a place of religion, learning, and education." And their duty to education as well as to religion would require them under these words to reject every candidate who had shown by his previous conduct that he was likely to set an example of profanity or levity, to abuse his influence as a fellow for the purpose of proselytism among the students, or otherwise to give just offence and bring discredit on the society in matters of religion. On the other hand, they would not be bound or authorized, nor are they bound or authorized now, to give any weight to mere party sympathies or antipathies, to entertain vague suspicions suggested by loose tongues, or to institute an inquisitorial scrutiny into the

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thoughts of men, over whose faith, in a time of general controversy and perplexity, a cloud may perhaps be passing, but whose character may not, perhaps, be on that account less essentially religious, nor their presence in a community less acceptable to really religious men. That those who have themselves been the great disturbers of men's minds in these matters, who have themselves introduced before our eyes, under the name of a revival, a new religion, the doctrines and ritual of which are still unsettled and in course of furtive development; who have led away many of the youth of England from the paths in which their fathers had walked for generations, and landed not a few of them in Roman Catholicism, and some in blank unbelief— that such men above all others should be extreme to mark and punish disturbance of conscience and unsettlement of faith in others, would not perhaps be very surprising, but it would be most ungenerous and unjust. And surely if to win waverers back to Christianity were the end in view, odious imputations and harsh treatment - harsh treatment at the age when it is most deeply felt and makes the most lasting impression-would not be the best means to that end. What is right rather than what is politic, should be the question when religion is concerned: but if policy is to be considered at all, it should be remembered that no enemies of religion are likely to be more deadly or more dangerous, than those who have felt religious injustice in their youth.

A large proportion of the Fellows in all the colleges, except All Souls, and the Heads of every college except

1

Merton, must be in Holy Orders*.

This is a very

strong guarantee against any disturbance of the religious system of college education; and a still stronger guarantee will probably be found, so long as the sentiments of English society remain what they now are, in the influence of public opinion. With regard to education, indeed, the admission of Nonconformists as undergraduates, which has already taken place in a few instances, might have been thought more subversive of the existing system, the rules of which it is necessary to break through in these cases, than the admission of Nonconformist fellows, who would not necessarily take any part whatever in the college education. The Act of Parliament requiring the Service of the Church of England to be performed daily in the college chapel would of course remain unaffected by any change in the Statutes respecting the election of fellows: and as the college is not the Ordinary, no majority of the fellows, supposing them to be so strangely inclined, would have the power of interfering with the college worship in any way whatever. So that those who look not to mere names and professions, often dignified with the title of principles, but to substantial results, might feel sufficiently secured against the destruction of anything which could possess a real value in their eyes. Whatever change did take place, moreover, would take place very gradually, and almost imperceptibly. Many years would probably elapse before Nonconformists would

* The Head of Oriel may by the Statutes be a layman, but a great part of the income consists of a canonry of Rochester annexed to the Provostship.

offer themselves in any considerable numbers as candidates for fellowships, and by that time it is quite possible that the hostile relations between those who are now distinguished as Churchmen and those who are now distinguished as Nonconformists may have undergone some change. The first effect of the relaxation would be to admit to fellowships men who have no desire to separate themselves practically from the Church of England, but whose consciences refuse, on moral and religious grounds, to take any kind of religious test. Cases of this kind have, it is believed, already occurred: and they involve peculiar hardship and absurdity, because the man who refuses on such grounds to become, like his contemporaries, a candidate for a fellowship, is driven to place himself before the University in the position of a Nonconformist, or even of a disbeliever in Christianity, when in point of fact he may be perfectly willing to remain in the Church in which he has been worshipping, and may object to nothing but the test. Even a Nonconformist, in the full sense of the term, though he might be honourably reluctant to renounce, for the sake of a fellowship, the communion of his fathers, would probably, in nine cases out of ten, after passing through the training of the University, and mingling for several years in its society, be very far from a separatist in temper or in practical religion. The Scotch and English Establishments, so far as the mass of their members are concerned, are in practical communion with each other, the Supreme Head of the English Establishment herself attending public worship according to the form

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of the Scotch Establishment when she is in that part of her dominions and nothing can be more irrational than to exact of a Scotch candidate for an English fellowship an act of ostensible apostasy, which to him is corrupting and humiliating, while to us it is valueless, or rather unmeaning. In effect, the religious character of the colleges would take its complexion from that of society at large; a result of which the members of a free community would scarcely have reason to complain. But unluckily there are many men who have not thoroughly learnt to regard themselves as members of a free community, or to think that the wishes of society at large are entitled to respect, but who still act on the assumption that they are members of a dominant party and sect, to which all national privileges exclusively belong, while the rest of the nation are in the position of suppliants and mendicants, whose importunities must be stoutly resisted at once, lest they should be emboldened in the end to demand a full measure of justice.

It would be uncandid to deny that the Colleges would have difficulties, and perhaps some internal dissensions to encounter, in the transition from one system to the other. The difficulties would probably be greatly diminished if the mere prize fellowships, tenable by non-residents as sinecures, could be separated from those held by the tutors of the college; a measure which is most desirable, and indeed will probably soon be found absolutely necessary, in order to secure to colleges a sufficient number of resident teachers in the different departments. But whatever they may